Naruto: Eye of the Storm
by NaruKashi-kun
Summary: Summary: What if Mizuki tries to trick Naruto several years earlier, unlocking a seal, unleashing Naruto's full potential, and his inheritance? Good Itachi, evil Fugaku, really strong/smart Naruto, Fuuinjutsu/Kenjutsu/Sharingan/Elemental Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto Uzumaki: Eye of the Storm

Summary: What if Mizuki tries to trick Naruto several years earlier, unlocking a seal, unleashing Naruto's full potential, and his inheritance? Good Itachi, evil Fugaku, really strong/smart Naruto, Fuuinjutsu/Kenjutsu/Sharingan/Elemental Naruto.

Disclaimer: I own nothing from the world of Naruto

Chapter 1: Learning the Truth

Naruto age: 7, Night of the First year exam, Forest of Konoha 

'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu'

Several hundred clones appeared and the forest was covered in a sea of orange jumpsuits and bright yellow hair.

Iruka and Mizuki sweated at seeing so many shadow clones, before the clones descended upon Mizuki in a huge mass.

12 minutes later the clones had all dispelled and only Iruka, the original Naruto and a now severely beaten and bruised, unconscious Mizuki remained in the clearing. There were a few moments of silence, before Naruto collapsed, orangey red chakra flickering around his body, and began to scream in agony.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, was watching the scenario through his crystal ball, ANBU on hand to intervene if necessary. However, when he saw the red chakra that was beginning to cover Naruto, he immediately shunshined to the area. Arriving at the scene, he ordered 2 of his ANBU to take Iruka to the hospital and Mizuki to the T&I Department, the others setting up a perimeter around the clearing. The Sandaime then tried to touch Naruto in order for him to try and assess his condition but when his hand got close the red chakra leaped towards it burning it slightly. The Sandaime sighed heavily, rose, and upon sending an ANBU to gather some of his most trusted ANBU, resealed the Scroll of Seals and settled down for a long wait.

In Naruto's Mindscape

All of a sudden Naruto felt cold water, but none of the blinding pain that he had felt moments before. He quickly stood up and realized that he was standing what looked to be a sewer like structure.

"_How the hell did I get in here?"_ He thought, utterly bewildered.

He looked around for some sort of way out, and saw that there were three huge pipes hanging from the darkness above him. The one on the left was dark silver, almost grey, the middle was black with streaks of red flowing through it, and the third, on his right, was a bright pulsating red.

Slightly unnerved by the last one, but figuring that he didn't have any other ideas on where to go, he followed the pipes into the gloom.

Naruto soon arrived at a rather large open space, and as he moved further into the gloom he quickly came upon what looked to a series of huge vertical columns, continuing on further than he could see on either side of him. On the column directly in front of him was a large piece of paper with the Kanji for "Seal" on it. However what intrigued Naruto was not the meaning of the huge columns but what he could see on the other side of them. There were two women, both seated on a couch watching a television screen. They both looked almost exactly the same, both had flowing red hair, and were clearly women who had seen battle. However the second woman had two major visible differences compared to the first woman, in that she possessed 9 foxtails and had a pair of fox ears on the top of her head.

'Who are you?' The words leapt unbidden from Naruto's mouth before he could stop them. Both females looked up, the first in utter glee and excitement, the second in slight anguish and sorrow, but with both there was a vague feeling of apprehension. Naruto immediately started to cringe, now that he had drawn attention to himself, there was no way he could leave unharmed.

'Naru-kun!" The first woman had leapt up and was rapidly approaching Naruto, arms out wide, in a way the reminded Naruto of various people who caught him in order to let the others beat him. Naruto immediately backed away, trying to get away from the two women. The woman, seeing this, slowed to a stop, before tentatively reaching for Naruto's shoulder, and holding it gently. Once Naruto realized that the woman was not trying to harm him, he looked up and repeated his question in a hopeful tone.

Kushina was trying her best not to exude Killing Intent at the way her son reacted to the presence of another person.

"_I knew that they hated him,"_ she thought. "_But obviously it has gotten worse over the years, to the point where he shuns human contact, what did they do to him?"_

As she gently wrapped Naruto in a hug, she answered his initial question:

'Naruto, I am your mother Uzumaki Kushina, heiress of the Uzumaki Clan, and Konoha's Red Death. The other woman over there is Kyare, although she is better known by her title, Kyuubi no Yoko.'

'But didn't the Yondaime kill the Kyuubi 7 years ago?' Naruto asked, understandably confused.

'Naruto, Kyare is a Bijuu, and the greatest of the tailed beasts; it is impossible for anything less than the gods themselves to permanently kill a Bijuu. If she did "die" then she would just spend a period of time out of this world before coming back, so the Yondaime resorted to the last thing any parent would do. He sealed it within his son,' Kushina explained patiently, thinking that Naruto knew of his father at least.

'So…. If she was sealed within the Yondaime's son, then where is he and why is she in a sewer?' Naruto asked, not having made the connection.

'Naruto, this is no sewer, we are within your mindscape,' the second woman, Kyare, spoke up suddenly, seeing that Kushina was having difficulty saying it.

'But, if we are within my mind, then that means the Kyuubi was … sealed… within…. Me,' Naruto said, utterly relieved to finally know the truth behind why he was treated so horribly. It took a few seconds before the full import of his mother's words hit him, 'Wait, do you MEAN THAT I AM THE SON OF THE YONDAIME?' Naruto shouted, absolutely aghast with shock.

'Yeah, your Minato and my son!' Kushina exclaimed with glee.

'Why did no-one tell me this?' Naruto asked slightly hurt that his jiji, the Sandaime, had lied to him about his parentage

'Well I knew that it was necessary for your parentage and your ancestry to be hidden from the general populace, otherwise you would have had so many assassination attempts on your life, as Minato and I made plenty of enemies during the last Shinobi War, but I thought that you would know. When you meet Hiruzen can you ask him to come into the mindscape so I can beat the crap out of him for hiding everything from you?' Kushina asked with a manic look in her eyes.

'Hold on what do you mean my parentage _and_ my ancestry? I can understand the parentage part, but do you mean to say that I am related to other great figures of history?' Naruto asked in a joking manner.

'Yep, on my side your grandfather was Uchiha Madara, relating you to both the Uchiha and Uzumaki, and your father, and therefore you, was a direct descendant of the Senju, with both the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokages being your great grandfather and great granduncle respectively. You also inherited the bloodline of each family.' Kushina listed casually, examining her fingernails

Naruto did the best thing he could upon learning his ancestry and the fact he had bloodlines, he fainted.

Waking up 15 minutes later, Naruto took several seconds to remember his conversation with his mother before he fainted.

"_It's completely mind-blowing,"_ he thought, "_to think that barely 6 hours ago I was trying not to let my mask slip in front of the rest of the class when I failed the first year exam, and now I have met my mother and the Kyuubi, learned of my heritage and been told that I am directly descended from 3 of the Hokages."_

Kushina and Kyare, seeing that Naruto had woken up, paused the recording that was on the television screen and moved towards him. Naruto, seeing the Kyuubi in human form coming towards him, was decidedly curious about the being. He knew that just because it looked like a girl, doesn't mean it necessarily was one.

'So considered how you have acted since I came here, I get the feeling the you aren't exactly the insane, bloodthirsty demon you're made out to be, are you?' Naruto asked, abruptly getting straight to the heart of the matter.

'Well, no I'm not. We Bijuu are almost exactly like humans except that we are immortal, use Youki and have several different forms,' Kyare summarized tentatively, before continuing, 'I also wish to apologise to you, seeing as I was the cause of your father's death.'

'Before we get round to that, can you perhaps explain to me why you attacked Konoha in the first place?' Naruto asked, eyes piercing.

'To do that we will need to start of at the founding of Konoha, at the battle at The Valley of The End between Senju Hashirama, Uchiha Madara, and an unknown assailant that managed to match both of them at once. The truth is that Hashirama and Madara were actually the best of friends, and as much brothers as Hashirama was with Tobirama, his biological brother. However due to the power that Madara had gained the Uchiha Clan Elders tried to blackmail Madara into betraying and destroying the Senju, but Madara refused, and was forced to flee. Hearing the rumours that the Uchiha Elders had spread, Hashirama killed them in his fury and went after Madara. Together they met before a man wearing a circular orange mask interrupted them, and together they fought against him. In the battle Madara summoned me to help them fight, but the unknown man had a method with which to control me, yet I am still unable to fathom as to what that is. Uzumaki Mito, who had followed her husband, saw me about to be turned against Madara and Hashirama, and using her skills at Fuuinjutsu, sealed me into herself. All three of them survived the battle with the man, although both Hashirama and Madara were left as merely shadows of their formers selves. Madara went into hiding, thinking that the man would come after him and not being able to return to Konoha, and settled down. The woman he married about 5 years later was and Uzumaki, as both the Uzumaki and Senju clans knew the truth of what happened on that day. This woman, Uzumaki Kirina, eventually gave birth to your mother 13 years later. Both Madara and Kirina were able to take on a Kage and defeat them easily, even though Madara never quite regained his former strength. Raising your mother in Uzushiogakure no Sato, Village Hidden in the Whirlpools, and the Uzumaki Clan home, she was a prodigy that had never been seen before, only later being surpassed in her earlier years by the Yondaime Hokage, Uchiha Itachi and Hatake Kakashi. However, when she was 8, a combined force of Iwa and Kumo Nin attacked Uzushio. Both of your grandparents fell in the battle for the village, which lasted for 2 weeks before it ceased. The attackers had been decimated, barely any of them survived, but the only survivor of the attack was your mother,' Kyare reminisced. Kushina then took up the story.

'I traveled to Konoha, seeing that we were allied with it at the time, and carried the secrets of Uzushio with me. The instructions on our secret Ninjutsu techniques, our use of Fuuinjutsu, and the scroll for our Kenjutsu styles, most of which rank among the deadliest styles known. When I arrived there it seemed a person or persons within Konoha saw this as an opportunity to gain power and poisoned Uzumaki Mito, who had outlived the majority of her generation. Over the next 4 years Mito was dying from the poison within her body, the only thing slowing it was her skill with Fuuinjutsu. Over these years she taught me everything she knew, especially Fuuinjutsu and Kenjutsu, to the point where my sealing was beginning to rival hers and I had become the foremost Kenjutsu student within the village. She also taught me politics and economics, even jutsu creation. Then she died, but before she did Kyare was passed onto me, as only the Uchiha, Senju or Uzumaki can control the power of Kyare; Uchiha through their eyes, Senju through Mokuton, although only Shodaime had the necessary affinities. The Uzumaki are able to control Kyare's chakra either through using their own, seals, or using an ability that all Uzumaki can learn called chakra chains. Thus it makes sense that we would be the ones to carry Kyare.

'Okay, so I know how I am related to the Uchiha, but how am I related to the Senju, specifically to the Shodaime and Nidaime, through dad?'

'Well, no one knows, but it is presumed that Minato's father was probably the son or grandson of the Shodaime, who died sometime during the gap between the 2nd and 3rd Shinobi Wars. After the 2nd Shinobi war he simply disappeared off the map.' Kushina answered in a rather annoyed tone.

'Okay,' Naruto said brightly before quieting once again. Both Kushina and Kyare simply waited, as they knew that Naruto would be in the middle of some heavy thinking right now, and would eventually have more questions to ask. The silence continued for about five minutes before Naruto spoke up once more.

'Eh, Kaa-chan,' Naruto started tentatively, 'if I am related to the Senju and Uchiha clans, wouldn't that mean I would have their bloodlines?'

'I was wondering when you would get around to asking that Naruto,' Kushina smiled at her son, ' as the answer to that is yes. In fact you have three bloodlines.'

'What?' Naruto was actually asking the question to try and dispute the fact that he was related to all these legendary people, but this made his mind crash to a halt.

'You have three bloodlines,' Kushina repeated, 'you have the Sharingan, the Uchiha bloodline from me.' Kushina demonstrated, activating her own three tomoe Sharingan. 'You have large amounts of highly efficient chakra, allowing you to spam high-level jutsus and have an insanely increased lifespan. This even allows us to create solid things purely from chakra, from shuriken and kunai to, if one has enough chakra, even a house. The final bloodline you inherited is from the Senju, and is the only known Skill bloodline. Usually bloodlines are categorized into three sections; Doujutsus, chakra bloodlines, and body bloodlines. However the Senju bloodline is none of these, although it is heavily related to a chakra bloodline. The Senju bloodline allows a member to completely master and take the field of Ninjtusu that they study to unprecedented heights. For example; the Shodaime chose elemental Ninjutsu to master and took his earth and water affinities to the point where he could combine them into his legendary Mokuton, while his brother also chose elemental Ninjutsu, he only had a water affinity but completely mastered the essence of water. Your father chose Space-Time Ninjutsu, but was also very good at chakra manipulation, while Tsunade of the Sennin specializes in Medical Ninjutsu.' Naruto's mind was in complete and utter shock at the thought of having such great bloodlines.

"_With all of these three bloodlines alone, Naruto has the potential to be the greatest shinobi in history, discounting the Rikudo Sennin,"_ both Kushina and Kyare had these thoughts running through their heads.

'Wait a minute,' Naruto spoke up once more, 'if I had these bloodlines, wouldn't someone have noticed by now, or something happened?'

'Ordinarily that would have been the case, especially with your Uzumaki and Uchiha bloodlines, but that damn seal that was on your back delayed the onset of your bloodlines and limited your capabilities to being pathetically weak. It even blocked off more than half of your brain's cognitive capabilities,' Kushina answered in a disgusted tone.

'Is there any way we can get it off from here?' Naruto knew there was no point panicking.

'We've already taken it off, that's what the pain was when you passed out, it was a real bugger too,' Kushina consoled understandingly, there no way she would want an unknown seal on her either.

'It seems we have strayed a bit off topic on how I came to be sealed within Naruto,' Kyare, it seems was a bit impatient to explain the truth to Naruto.

'So we have, well you can finish the story, as it is more about you and I can explain more about myself to Naruto later,' Kushina acquiesced to Kyare's request.

'After Mito died I was sealed within your mother, as she and the Senju agreed it may have been best to keep it from the Uchiha, whose ties with the Senju were starting to fray. Once I was sealed within Kushina, we became very good friends with each other, as I had with Mito. Skipping forward to the night of your birth, Kushina was in labor when a masked man assassinated the guards around the area, this masked man revealed himself to Minato and Kushina. He used you as blackmail to leave Kushina facing him alone, while your father was getting you to safety. This was more than enough time for the masked man to defeat and constrain her, and he began to pull me out of her body. Once he had he controlled me and forced me to attack Konoha, your father resorted to using Fuuinjutsu that he had devised to seal me within you. The seal he devised was the only of its kind, as it is slowly taking my Youki, and transforming into your Chakra, thus constantly increasing your chakra reserves. But the reason I explained earlier about the battle at the Valley of the End was because the masked man wore the exact same mask as that man did, so obviously it is either the same man or some organization.' Kyare looked down before continuing, 'It was due to me that you lost any chance of having a father, so I beg for your forgiveness.' There was a moment of silence following these words as Kushina had lost the ability to speak and Naruto was perplexed as to why she would ask for such a thing.

'Kyare-chan, there is no need for you to ask for forgiveness as you did not have a choice in attacking Konoha, the masked man is to blame for my father's death and the destruction it wrought on Konoha.' Naruto said, hugging the demon in human form. Kyare began crying as she hugged Naruto before smiling.

'Naruto, I promise I shall help you to the best of my abilities in whatever endeavor you make as long it is involved in fighting or training,' Naruto was shocked that Kyare had made such promise to him. However before he could respond he felt a tug, trying to draw him from his mindscape.

'Well it seems they are trying to wake you up Naruto. Okay when you wake up tell the Sandaime that you know the full truth about your heritage, parents and Kyare, he should know what to do. Also, know that the seal is gone we shall be able to speak to you while you are conscious, and ask if you can bring him and those he trusts and like you into the mindscape to make it easier to explain things,' Kushina said in a rush as Naruto began fading back to the conscious world

Konoha Hospital, One and a half hours later in Real world

Vibrant blue eyes blearily opened to see the masked face of the Dog ANBU shaking him softly in desperation. A few moments later the ANBU stopped, seeing that Naruto's eyes had opened, and stepped back silently. Naruto glanced around what seemed to be his bed within the hospital to see the Hokage, and Dog, Cat, Snake, Raven, Weasel and Turtle masked ANBU gathered around his bed. The Hokage, seeing Dog step back realized that Naruto had woken up and moved swiftly over to him.

'Naruto, I must know what happened,' Hiruzen said in a rather stern tone

'Jiji, I need to talk to you in private with those you trust and like me, which are probably only the six ANBU that are here,' Naruto said quietly. The six ANBU pricked up at this news. Before Cat ended up asking the question:

'How were you able to tell we were there? There's no way you should have known.'

'I don't know how I knew, I just did. It was like there was a an energy that I could sense within each of you,' Naruto explained apprehensively

"_Ah, so it seems Naruto is a sensor ninja,"_ Hiruzen thought with slight wonderment.

'Well, then, can you tell us if there are people eavesdropping on us?' The Hokage asked, although he was also checking with Snake, who also had a similar sort of ability. Naruto was quiet for a moment, before speaking up:

'Jiji,' he said quietly, 'there is someone using chakra two windows down, and directing the chakra to this room.'

Immediately two of the ANBU, Raven and Weasel, disappeared in blurs of speed. The Hokage, ANBU and Naruto heard the sounds of a light scuffle before they reappeared within a man, bound and unconscious between them. The Hokage, seeing the ROOT insignia on the man's blank mask, immediately ordered Cat to send for Inoichi, the best of the Yamanaka mind-walkers, and head to the Yamanaka clan. After Cat had disappeared with a shunshin, he ordered Raven, Dog and Snake to stay with Naruto, before he, Weasel and Turtle shunshined away as well.

Before long Naruto was fast asleep and the three remaining ANBU had dispersed themselves around the room. As Raven watched over the sleeping child she considered what to get Naruto for his birthday in a few weeks time, as October the tenth was rapidly approaching, but she and the ANBU guarding Naruto knew what a dangerous situation Naruto's birthdays were, so they got him presents a few weeks early. She, along with Snake and Weasel were setting the date to give Naruto presents as September the 29th, while Cat, Dog and Turtle were setting theirs for the 30th, a mere day later. Any later and it was October, the month where Naruto spent most of his time hiding out and scrounging for food, although the majority of the ANBU tried their best to help him, even giving rooms for the night. As Raven listened to the sounds of merchants plying their trades in the market, she realized that it was almost time for the traders to return to Konoha, as they came on a seasonal basis. Knowing that the traders adored Naruto for his sweet attitude, she came to the conclusion that she would be able to get Naruto something good and unusual, at the same time as making a bargain as they lowered the prices of their wares for Naruto. In fact, if she could get Naruto to come along with her and browse the wares for what he want himself. Conveying her plan to Dog and Snake through hand signals, they had to admit it was a good plan, and made a note to inform the others when they returned.

Around half an hour later and informed the ANBU of their results with the ROOT member; Inoichi had walked though his mindscape and found evidence of some of Danzo's dealings. They then had formulated an infiltration which revolved around Dog putting a hidden tracking seal on the man and erasing the man's memories of his capture and inserting false information. This was done to make it seem that there was only normal things that involved Naruto and allowed them to find Danzo's ROOT bases within the city. Hiruzen took this precaution, as Danzo had always been highly interested in possessing Naruto in order to turn him into one of his mindless automatons and gaining more power behind him. As he considered this he was overcome by anger at how far Konoha had descended from it original values and swore that it was time to regain control over the city. As the ANBU listened to their Hokage, they could see quite clearly that the Kami no Shinobi was back.

Early next Morning, Hokage's Office 

Hiruzen frowned as he sent away two ANBU teams to send for his two students Jiraiya and Tsunade, to come back to Konoha immediately, even authorizing his ANBU the use of deadly force in order to retrieve them. He was planning to get them back into Konoha to replace his current advisors, as he knew that the Council Elders were the source of him losing most of his power after Minato died. After that goal was completed he was going to slowly regain most of his power, as with Tsunade and Jiraiya as his advisors he would have their support, and he would be able to rebuild Konoha to its former glory. His main concerns were the number of secrets held within Konoha, the running of the academy, and the descent of the hospital, along with the loss of many shinobi that specialized in areas outside of Taijutsu, Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. He was also going to go over many of the laws regarding the shinobi bloodline clans, especially if they were down to their last few members, such as the Yuki clan survivors that teams of ANBU-and Naruto- had retrieved from the Kiri bloodline purge, along with other such clans. After scribbling down some ideas for the adjustments he was going to make to Konoha's shinobi system and filing them within a secret draw in his desk, he lit his pipe and leaned back in his chair to consider his most recent issue, Naruto.

If the boy had made contact with his tenant, then things were going to be a lot more difficult, both in getting Naruto to trust him and in keeping the civilians from killing him. Hiruzen also considered the idea of labeling Naruto as a flight risk if he had, much as he wanted to avoid it.

Hiruzen put his thoughts to one side as he heard clear knocks against the door, the knocks being in a slightly different rhythm that indicated it was the group of ANBU that was assigned as Naruto's bodyguard.

'Enter,' Hiruzen called briefly, mentally preparing for Naruto's loud entrance, as was usually the case.

'Hokage-sama,' the ANBU greeted as they entered the office, while Naruto greeted him the same as usual, just slightly quieter.

'Right, Naruto, I believe you have something to tell me,' Hiruzen said as he watched the boy sit down.

'And I will tell you, but can you send the other ANBU out of the room first,' Naruto replied evenly. Hiruzen did so as he would still have six ANBU in the room with him, and Naruto wasn't likely to try anything.

'Jiji, are you sure you have sent out all the other ANBU?' Naruto had sensed another person, who seemed to be in the air vents. The Hokage nodded slowly, and Naruto leaned over to Dog and said something to him quietly, who twitched slightly, showing her surprise before moving quickly. Reaching into the air vent, Dog dragged him out and knocked him out before he could react, revealing another ROOT member, clearly with the intention of eavesdropping on the Hokage's meeting. Hiruzen ordered Turtle to take the man quickly to the T&I department and repeating the same process as they had yesterday. After Turtle was gone the Hokage walked to a wall and activated a privacy seal to make sure that no one would be able to eavesdrop on them.

Naruto then began to tell the story of what had happened last night, from his desperation at failing the exam, up until he met his mother and Kyare in the seal. He then asked the six other people in the room to be touch a part of his head. They questioned as to why he wanted them to do this, unsurprisingly, before he explained that his mother and Kyare were going to bring them into the mindscape so they could talk to them. Although clearly rather apprehensive, they did as he asked, and there was a flash of light from each of their hands as they touched Naruto's head.

Within the Mindscape 

Naruto and the others appeared within the same part of the mindscape that Naruto first arrived in, and all apart from Naruto felt a shard of sadness and guilt when they saw the state of Naruto's mind. Finally it made them all the more determined to help the blond. Naruto began to eagerly lead them towards Kyare's prison, as he had named that room-like structure in his mind, although in the beginning the others, especially the ANBU were rather grudging of their situation.

When they had reached the set of huge prison bars, though they were even more tentative, as each of them had rather vivid memories of the Kyuubi when it attacked Konoha. All of them were stunned as they beheld Kushina and Kyare behind the bars, apart from Naruto, who rushed forward, shouting:

'Kaa-chan, Kyare-chan!' Both women looked up eagerly at the boy who was racing towards them. They embraced him as he jumped into the arms of his mother before giving Kyare a hug and lying down on the now vacated sofa. After introductions and the briefest explanations as to Kyare's current form they turned to Naruto to find that he had fallen asleep.

'Poor boy, must still be exhausted from last night, the young do need a lot of sleep after all,' Hiruzen chuckled, and the others smiled at the sleeping boy.

'ANBU, I believe you can remove your masks here as we are among friends, and they can't tell anyone anyway, apart from Naruto that is, but he is going to know soon enough anyhow,' Hiruzen said cordially. The ANBU proceeded to slowly remove their masks, one after the other. Raven was revealed to be Yuuhi Kurenai, Snake was Mitirashi Anko, and Cat was Uzuki Yugao. Weasel then revealed himself to be Uchiha Itachi. Dog reached up ever so slowly to his mask, making everyone roll their eyes, before he removed his mask to reveal…another mask! Everyone face-faulted at the sight. He then introduced himself as Hatake Kakashi, before the Hokage mentioned something about his true self. "Kakashi" released a Genjutsu without any fuss, revealing a white haired version of Kurenai and twin 3 tomoe Sharingans spinning in either eye, as Rin had accidentally coded the Sharingan into Kakashi's DNA. "Kakashi" then reintroduced himself as Hatake Kanako. However, she didn't get the reaction of surprise that she wanted as het teammates and the Hokage already knew, she had told Kushina when she became part of Minato's genin team, and the Kyuubi knew as she used her sense of smell to determine her gender under the Genjutsu-Fuuinjutsu combo. And Naruto, the only person who didn't know, was still asleep. The seven humans and one Bijuu then began talking of what they were going to do with Naruto's training and the treatment in his life so far. When the subject of his treatment came up, Kushina looked close to beating the crap out of the Sandaime, but refrained, as she understood that as the Hokage, there were limitations as to what he could do for Naruto. They settled that, as the hope for Naruto having a normal childhood was already ruined, he would be trained in secret by the six ANBU guarding him, along with Kushina and the Kyare. When the ANBU and the Hokage learned the truth of what happened on the night of Kyare's attack on Konoha, they were disbelieving at first, but after Kushina showed her own memories of the incident, they quickly forgave Kyare. They concluded that Naruto would be trained privately by the ANBU in Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Kenjutsu. He would also be training in his bloodlines with Itachi and Kushina, and he and Kanako would both be learning Fuuinjutsu from Kushina in the mindscape. They finally concluded that he would also be training in controlling Kyare's power with Kyare, although all the ANBU had to be present when he did, in order for safety reasons. They knew that once word got out of who Naruto actually was, and the fact that he had three bloodlines, he would be hunted for almost the remainder of his life, unless he was strong enough to defend himself from some of the strongest shinobi on the planet.

They then woke Naruto up and explained the situation. Although surprised that Dog was actually a girl, the fact soon paled in comparison of his emotions when he realized that he was going to be privately trained by his best friends.


	2. Chapter 2: 2 years, S-Rank

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

As at the time Naruto had around two months before the academy started again, there was no problem with Naruto be trained all day every day. Although everyone training him would never forget the look of sheer horror on his face when he first received his timetable from his teachers.

_Flashback_

Naruto was unsure that they were intending for him to survive his training as he looked over the timetable his senseis had handed him. The Hokage had allowed the use of his private training ground for Naruto's training and all of the six ANBU were eager to be finally training their young charge.

Monday- Friday

5:30- Wake up, 75 pushups, sit-ups and squats, 20 laps around training ground with Gai

6:15-6:30- Shower and breakfast

6:30-9:00- Chakra control with Kakano and Kurenai

9:00-12:00- Ninjutsu with Kakano and Itachi or Genjutsu with Kurenai and Yugao

12:00-12:45- Lunch

12:45-3:00- Taijutsu with Gai or weapons handling and traps with Anko

3:00-6:00- Fuuinjutsu with Kushina in mindscape, accompanied by Kanako

6:00-7:30- Academic studies on tactics and strategy, along with other academic theory

7:30-8:00- Dinner, Wash up

8:00-9:30- Homework, personal training

9:30- Lights out

Naruto looked up at his teachers in complete horror, but Yugao, seeing the face he was making and lips quirking in amusement gave him his timetable for the weekends.

Saturday

6:30-Wake up, Light warm up

6:45-9:30- Kenjutsu basics and practice with Yugao

9:30-10:00- Breakfast, shower

10:00-1:00-Bloodline training with Itachi and Kushina

1:00-4:00-Academic studies from the academy

4:00-9:00-Free time

9:00-Lights out

Sunday

9:00-Wake up, Breakfast, Shower

9:45-12:00- Ninjutsu Practice

12:00-9:00- Homework, Private training, and free time

9:00- Lights out

Naruto looked at the timetable in shock, before grumbling under his breath knowing he needed this training, and that although it would be tough, it should also be really fun.

'Wait a minute, what about the academy? I mean, I can't be doing this when I need to go to the academy,' Naruto asked

'We will teach you a clone technique, called the Blood Clone, that will allow you to send a clone to the academy and learn the basic information there, such as history, which we don't have time to be teaching you. In many of your lesson's with us we will be using the Shadow clone technique that you learned from the Forbidden Scroll, as it retains knowledge that it has learned, including muscle memory, Ninjutsu, chakra control and Fuuinjutsu. In fact it retains pretty much everything apart from muscle training, allowing you to learn multiple things at once,' Kanako explained, not taking her eyes off a small orange book that she was reading called Icha Icha Paradise.

'As today is a Saturday we shall rest for the remainder of today, then tomorrow we shall be buying your equipment, such as shinobi clothes, practice weapons, sealing supplies, and books on chakra control, survival and cooking. The next day the training will begin,' Itachi said, in a calm voice.

Naruto saw a gleam of excitement within Anko's eyes that made him sure he had no idea what he had gotten himself into.

On Monday morning he showed up at the Hokage's private training ground wearing the shinobi clothes that he had been bought yesterday, black combat boots, black pants that were tucked into the boots, black long-sleeved shirt that melded to his torso and arms and had a black hood, and a light grey combat vest with extra pockets, a high collar, and dark orange outlines. He had his kunai holster strapped to his left thigh, with his shuriken holster strapped to his right.

As he watched Gai walk into the training ground with his ANBU gear and mask on, he felt an irresistible urge that this was going to hurt. He was right, as 45 minutes later he was limping home trying to quicken his pace as his legs began to seize up. As he ate a healthy breakfast he internally groaned as he realized that if all his training sessions were like this, he was going to hurt like crazy tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. In fact, he wasn't going to stop hurting.

He heard giggles from his mother and Kyare as they heard his thoughts and he sighed, having two people inside one's head made it difficult to keep anything private. He washed up his bowl, before setting back off towards the training ground for his chakra control session, hopefully this one wouldn't be as physically exhausting. It wasn't, but it still hurt like crazy when he fell of the tree he was walking up and landed on his upper back, which happened several times. Then he had Ninjutsu training with Itachi-sensei and Kakano-sensei, in which most of it was him and his clones reading about chakra theory, before they taught him to do a basic Henge technique. Naruto quickly saw the possible applications in the technique, and made a mental note to his mother to remind him to send 50 henged shadow clones to the library on Sunday. Naruto then went home in order to have lunch, before returning for his lesson in kunai and shuriken handling and practice from Anko-sensei. It was pretty dull once one learnt the proper way to throw kunai and shuriken, as after that it was pure repetition and practice, but Naruto stuck with it, knowing that it may one day save his life. Fuuinjutsu with Kaa-chan and Kakano-sensei in the mindscape was pretty fun, as he learnt the basic Kanji needed for beginner seals, although he had clones practicing perfecting his writing. The hour and a half of academic studies after that was slow and boring, but learning about the importance of strategy made him perk up, as he would do anything necessary to save the lives of his friends and family. All in all, by the time dinner came around he was both physically and mentally exhausted, and he still had hand seals to practice afterwards.

Flashback End

It had been 2 years since the beginning of his training and Naruto had completely broken anyone expectations of him, as he could now go toe-to-toe with ANBU captains, he would lose, but he could still give them a challenge. Anyone below that sort of skill level he could beat. His Taijutsu was insanely strong, and he was creating his own personal style from a mix of Goken, the Uchiha Interceptor style, and the Uzumaki Phoenix style. His Ninjutsu was impressive, as he knew various D-S Rank techniques for each of his affinities, which were Water, Lightning, Wind and Earth. Although he had mastered his Water, Wind and Lightning affinities, he still needed to work on his earth affinities, but had managed to combine his Water and Wind into Ice due to his Senju bloodline. His Kenjutsu was at the point where he could go up against some of the top Kenjutsu masters in the Elemental Nations and win, as he had, with the use of Kage Bunshin, perfected the Uzumaki style and dances, which were some of the best. His Genjutsu, though impressive for his age and still better than most, was the weakest of his fields, as being the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi made controlling and fine-tuning Genjutsu difficult. His Fuuinjutsu was his most impressive field however, as he was considered equal by his mother to Uzumaki Mito, the best Fuuinjutsu user in history. His Sharingan had 2 tomoes in each eye, meaning that he could see chakra and see incoming moves, but couldn't copy the techniques of others. He primarily used his Uzumaki bloodline in order to be able to write his seals in midair, and to create chakra chains in battle, although he occasionally used it to create wings of his chakra attached to his back and fly over Konoha.

Things had gotten better in Konoha over the past few years, the Hokage had regained back most of his former influence in the village, the Council Elders had been "retired" and Tsunade had replaced them. Jiraiya had escaped from being an Elder due to the responsibilities of his spy ring, although he had established a ring in Konoha to help the Hokage ferret out secrets within the village. Tsunade had, after some persuasion, returned to Konoha and replaced the two advisors, Homura and Koharu, along with being appointed the head of Konoha's hospital. She now conducted courses for potential medic-nins along with her apprentice, Shizune, although she had become quite doting over Naruto, after learning that he was the last male Senju. After the responsibility of the academy was placed back into shinobi hands, the courses were much more about them surviving the shinobi lifestyle than learning history or flower pressing. As such, many of the civilian children dropped out, especially if they were fangirls. By this time however, the "dobe" Naruto had already been established and he didn't really care anyway, as he was years ahead of his class. His blood clone had a lot of fun skipping out on class and pulling massive pranks. Things had gotten so well that Kakano was able to fully take off her Kakashi persona without fear of being turned into a breeding machine by the civilian council. Finally, the most drastic thing that had happened was Danzo being run out of Konoha, as a few months ago the ANBU had finally moved against the hidden ROOT bases within the village, as the Hokage had used the ROOT he had caught against Danzo, amassing a huge amount of information on his activities. They had succeeded with capturing the majority of the ROOT shinobi, but Danzo had managed to flee with some of his upper echelon. Naruto had used his Fuuinjutsu to take off many of the seals on the captured ROOT shinobi, and had managed to gain a friend, called Sai, who was now utterly loyal to Naruto. It was rather awkward when he started following Naruto around incessantly, but he believed that Naruto was worth it, as he knew Naruto had saved him from becoming a weapon. After a month, the ANBU shrugged and began training him too.

Although Danzo's exile paled in comparison to the mission Itachi had to carry out 2 months ago, as he had to kill his father, Uchiha Fugaku and several other clan members after they had slaughtered the rest of his clan. Fugaku had escaped after he had used Tsukynomi on Sasuke, Itachi's younger brother, to convince him that it was Itachi that had killed the rest of the clan. After this, Itachi was forced to flee Konoha and be branded an S rank missing-nin, although he still received missions from the Hokage. At the moment he was on orders to infiltrate an organization known as Akatsuki, and had found out three key things about them: 1, It was an organization that was trying to protect the Jinchuuriki of the Bijuu from another organization known as Kurei, 2, The leader of the organization possessed the Rinnegan, and 3, Orochimaru was part of the organization and was innocent of his crimes and Danzo was behind the inhumane experimentations. The only people who knew of Itachi's current situation were his former ANBU teammates, Naruto and Sai, the Hokage, Tsunade and Jiraiya, and the Shinobi clan heads. Itachi's information provided a link between Danzo and files that had been found in his quarters pertaining to the group called Kurei.

Naruto, in Itachi's absence had become good friends with his mother, Uchiha Mikoto, and had received a new sensei called Gekko Hayate, who was the second of Konoha's two sword masters, the first being Yugao. The two regularly went into Naruto's mindscape with him in order to receive Kenjutsu training from Kushina, whose skill with swords had been legendary when she was around.

At the moment Naruto, Sai, Kanako, Yugao, Anko, Kurenai, Gai, and Hayate stood in the Hokage's office, having received a visit from ANBU telling them to be here. Hiruzen looked at each of them, hoping to use this mission as a chance to get Naruto and Sai used to facing other shinobi, as both had done several C ranks as a pair, but he wasn't completely sure the two were up to it alone.

'Alright, you eight are here for an S-rank mission,' the Sandaime started before he was interrupted.

'Jiji, are you feeling alright?' Naruto asked, the idea of the Sandaime giving him an S-rank at his age was preposterous.

'Naruto, I can assure you I feel perfectly fine. Now, as to what this mission entails; you have all heard of the current Kiri bloodline purge, is that correct?' Receiving mute nods, he continued, ' They are eliminating bloodlines, and although we shouldn't interfere, I am sending you eight to retrieve surviving members of as many bloodline clans as possible to bring them back to Konoha so they can live in piece. Priority clans are those that already had small or dwindling numbers to begin with, as their bloodlines are the most likely to be eradicated. Due to our information from Jiraiya's spy network we are able to give you the general locations for many bloodline survivor groups, but it is likely that these locations won't last for long, therefore you will have to split up into two teams.'

'Jiji, why are Sai and I here, rather than more experienced ANBU members?' Naruto questioned seriously, understanding the gravity of this mission

'All of our ANBU that are experienced enough for this missions are out of the village, and you are very capable yourself, after all you two were taught by some of the best,' Hiruzen explained. He didn't want to send Naruto out for this mission, but any less than eight and they wouldn't be able to reach many survivors in time.

'You eight will be handling extracting them from combat, while others teams will be extracting the ones in safety into Fire country, you save a group, contact another team and move on. You will be both saving lives and benefiting Konoha,' Hiruzen outlined

'You have three hours to prepare, and remember to take extra supplies as you will be going into a warzone, and that the injured may need them. The extraction force is gathering at the west gate.'

Naruto watched on in wonderment as 78 ANBU members gathered at the main gate along with him and Sai, a fair few of them being former ROOT members. It was the largest gathering of senior shinobi he had ever seen, and thankfully he didn't have to put up with disparaging remarks as both he and Sai had sparred a number of them and won. For this mission, they had both been given ANBU masks, Fox for Naruto, ironically, and Hawk for Sai. They had been put on a team with Kanako and Anko, while Yugao, Kurenai, Hayate and Gai formed the other combat team. The rumor of Naruto and Sai being trained by the top had circulated around ANBU, and they welcomed the two better than they did with most new rookies.

Naruto withdrew one of his twin ninjato from a man's chest as the encounter ended. His team was outside of the Yuki clan compound in Kirigakure no Sato, and were defending against waves of bloodline haters as two other teams evacuated the remaining Yuki clan members and cut their way out of the city to the rendezvous point. There were only around 15 adults remaining, along with around 25 children and babies. All the others were dead or had managed to flee. Kanako, Anko, Naruto and Sai moved on towards the Kaguya compound to find two or three clan members using their bloodline to become whirlwinds of death amongst the enemy ranks. Naruto had one thought as he watched their bones return to their bodies:

"_Yuck" _

Kanako moved forward announcing their presence and intentions to the clan members, who had rearmed themselves with bone swords until they saw the Konoha mark on their ANBU masks. Kanako and the clansmen agreed that her team would hold the entrance to the compound while they gathered their surviving members and waited for the retrieval teams to return. 3 minutes after the clansmen retreated within the compound to inform their clan head and begin to prepare, a group of around 30 bloodline haters showed up carrying torches to set the compound alight. Naruto sighed as he unsheathed his ninjatos and channeled wind chakra through one and lightning chakra through the other. He stood passively as 7 of the enemy shinobi charged him, until they got within 5 meters of him then he jumped onto the first man's shoulders, knocked him down to the ground, rolled and stabbed another through the chest. He didn't know that he had unconsciously used his Uzumaki bloodline and created wings of solid, blazing chakra behind him.

The fight, lasting a 2 days and a night, was later labeled Bone Fires and earned him a place in the Bingo book at the age of 9 as 'Deathly Angel'.

At the Rendezvous Point, several days later

Kanako's team walked wearily into the campsite they had labeled as the rendezvous point after retrieval was completed. They were covered in blood, having been fighting constantly for the last few days. They were the last team out; all the others already gathered, along with around 200 bloodline survivors of various clans, the biggest being the Kaguya and the Okami, a clan that possessed the wolf-summoning contract. As the ANBU guarding the camp announced that the last team had arrived they were given three hours to clean themselves up and prepare their equipment. Thankfully, due to the fact that their team and Yugao's team had the element of surprise on their side, neither had sustained losses, and the other teams had avoided contact and snuck their charges out of the village. As Naruto took a makeshift shower, he reflected that although they had retrieved all the survivors in the various compounds and those that were hiding out, there was still a high likelihood that some had escaped. He remembered the Yuki clan and decided that they, along with the Okami were probably his favorite, as he had connections to both of them. Being the bearer of Kyare gave him a connection to the Okami, while his Ice style Ninjutsu, gave him a connection the Yuki clan, as their bloodline allowed the use of Ice style as well.

Later when the huge group began to move out towards Konoha, as all the survivors knew that Konoha treasured those with bloodlines and treated its shinobi as more than weapons, and pretty much all had agreed to live in Konoha. Naruto, Sai, and the rest of the Konoha ANBU spaced themselves out equally around the walking column, with Naruto being closest to the Yuki clan members, as Kanako already saw that he liked them. The column would stop for a break after six hours of walking, before going for another six hours. They could have travelled at shinobi speeds, but that would mean leaving the children and the elderly behind to fend for themselves, something that all refused to do.

They arrived at Konoha's gates 2 weeks later, drawing the attention of many. As the survivors were setting up a camp outside of Konoha's walls, with ANBU guarding all inside against any that might do harm, a member of each clan was elected as clan head, who were then escorted to the Hokage's office by Kanako's and Yugao's teams. Opening the door to the Office, Naruto and the others remained behind as the new clan heads engaged in conversation with the Hokage. Explaining the situation to each of the clan heads, Hiruzen outlined that they would be building new clan compounds in vacant areas within Konoha's walls, and that there clans people were to be full functioning citizens or shinobi of Konoha if they wished. The heads agreed, before recounting their tales to the Hokage; their voices were full of admiration as they recounted their viewings of the two teams waiting behind them. When the Kaguya head mentioned the wings of chakra upon Naruto's back, Hiruzen almost sighed in annoyance, as there had been a recent Bingo book entry just labeled Deathly Angel, which was seen fighting outside the Kaguya compound. Thankfully they didn't know his affiliation was Konoha. He made arrangements for the new heads of the new clans to meet the current clan heads of Konoha. He waited for them to leave while escorted by ANBU before allowing the others to come forward.

'Remove your masks,' he said and they did so quietly, even Naruto knowing that this wasn't the time to talk out of turn.

'Report, Kanako,' and so she began. Hiruzen mind turned to shock as he heard some of the battles won by Kanako's team. Four of them against almost 150 sellswords were highly unreasonable odds, and ones in which it was quite likely they would have died but they managed to pull through without any serious injuries.

'Well, it sounds like the mission was more than successful, as you retrieved all available bloodline users without any serious injuries therefore each of you will receive payment for an S-rank mission and a C-rank on top of that,' The Hokage smiled and let them troop out so they could go home and get some rest.

Naruto smiled as he lay on his bed after showering and eating, sure he had killed, but what mattered was that he and his teammates had made it through unharmed while simultaneously completing the mission.


	3. Chapter 3: Graduation and Team 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Over the past 3 years Naruto had been training in more and more advanced subjects; his Taijutsu was equal to Gai's, he was wearing chakra weights that were on level 8 out of 20, and he had resistance seals level 5 out of 50. His Ninjutsu variation was equal with Kanako's; he had finally mastered his Earth element, and was now experimenting with mixing his affinities. He was going quite well with Ice, as he had started to train with the Yuki clan, was starting to activate Mokuton, and had even created an Ultimate defense using both moving Ice panels, and a swirling sphere of Water, Wind and Lightning which he like to call his Storm element. His Kenjutsu was greater than that of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and could combine it with both Genjutsu and Taijutsu. His Genjutsu was on the level of a jonin, and he primarily used it in conjunction with his Kenjutsu. His Fuuinjutsu was where he excelled; he had used seals and the creativity of his mind to solve many problems, creating entirely new structures. He had even invented something he called a Hoverbike, which allowed for fast and easy transport and could be guided by the legs, leaving the hands free for other tasks, but he had yet to tell anyone, as he knew that allowing it for public use could have disastrous consequences. His Sharingan had each gained their third tomoe, but he rarely used it to copy techniques, though he did have a good look at the Uchiha library's lightning techniques. His Uzumaki bloodline he started to think up new uses, such as using it for pure chakra techniques to create even more devastating versions. Naruto had done a lot more missions for when he got bored, or stumped on an idea, most of them being C or B-rank missions that he did with Sai. Although he had also done a few more A and S-ranks when it was needed. Sai had also advanced to the point where he could give most ANBU a beating. As such they spent a lot of time looking for Jiraiya, when he was in Konoha, so they could have a spar. Naruto and Tsunade actually figured out another part of the Senju bloodline, which was that once an ancestor had reached a new peak in their field of expertise, all those directly descended from that person could reach that peak even if it wasn't their field of Ninjutsu. The two were completely shocked by this find as it meant that the longer the clan lived, the more powerful each member grew. They only figured this out when Tsunade reached the Nidaime's level with her water affinity, in a spar and both were too shocked to comprehend what had happened until several days later. Although Naruto had begun studying Medical Ninjutsu at a feverish pace.

Currently Naruto was getting dressed in what he had been using for almost the last 5 years; black combat boots, black pants, black long-sleeved form fitting shirt with a hood attached that he used on missions, and a light grey combat vest with an orange Uzumaki spiral on the back. Both his pants and shirt had black non-reflective leather armor sewn on and he had white bandages wrapped around his left thigh. He now had a pair of black leather fingerless gloves that had armor plates on the back of the palms. He also wore a mask like Kanako did that hid everything below his eyes. He had his twin ninjatos sheathed and strapped to his back in an x.

Usually Naruto would be getting dressed like this for private training, but not today, no, today he was attending the Graduation exams and was going to reveal his true self. This would be the first time he had gone to the academy personally in around 5 years and he didn't miss it due to the memories of the blood clones he created. He had to say it: Sasuke was a complete and utter jerk ever since Itachi left, even to his mother. Kiba was both arrogant that he was a clan heir and too headstrong, while Hinata was almost the exact opposite. Shikamaru and Choji both had good potential but were too lazy to actually train. Then there was Shino, who was actually probably the best student there, apart from Sasuke, and the one who would become the nest ninja. Then there were really just a bunch of fangirls chased after Sasuke, but two girls, Sakura and Ino, headed them, who had apparently ditched their friendship when they learned the other was going after Sasuke. Stupid.

Naruto walked into the academy an hour and a half early, and sat in a chair next to the window. He then unsealed a violin from a storage seal on his vest, and began playing, unaware that Iruka had just walked into the room. The chunin stopped for a moment before shrugging, as he knew that Naruto was receiving private training from ANBU, and could probably kill him relatively easily. As he sorted through papers on his desk to prepare for the exam, he listened quietly to the sound of Naruto's violin. There were several times when he could envision a situation and the music would fit perfectly, and a chill would creep down his neck. As the time passed other students began to walk into the classroom only to stop in silence as they saw Naruto playing the violin, before sitting down silently. When there were only a few minutes to go until the bell rang, everyone in the classroom heard the sound of drumming feet.

Outside, as both Ino and Sakura raced towards the door of their classroom they heard the sound of music emanating from the classroom.

"_Ah, it must be Sasuke who is playing the violin so beautifully,"_ they both thought, "_obviously he is feeling very emotional, so this is my chance to marry him."_

They both burst through the door loudly before screaming out:

'MARRY ME, SASUKE-KUN!' The silence following this proclamation was stunningly loud, before Naruto spoke up.

'If you're looking for the arrogant ass, he's behind you.'

'Sasuke-kun!' Both of them ignored Naruto insulting Sasuke in order to greet him

Sasuke just walked past them silently.

'Can you play the violin again for us Sasuke-kun?' Ino asked eagerly. Sasuke just looked at her with a confused face before grunting and motioning with his head at Naruto. Both girls looked at Naruto, unsure why, but Sasuke had asked it so why not. Then they saw the violin in his hands.

'Naruto-baka, how dare you steal property from the magnificent Sasuke-kun, give it back right this instant!' Sakura screeched loudly.

'Why should I give it to him, when it's mine?' Naruto asked in a bored tone

'How could it be yours, you're just a no good clanless orphan!' This time Sakura was even louder. Before she knew it, Naruto had disappeared from his seat, she was lying on her back on the floor, and Naruto was standing over her, eyes burning in anger

'Just because I am the last of my clan, doesn't mean I am clanless,' Naruto said in a voice thick with fury. And as he said those words Sakura saw images of her own death. The next second he was back in his chair, with everyone staring at him. He tapped his foot impatiently motioning for Iruka to get on with it and hand the written exams out. Iruka coughed, he hadn't been expecting such an angry reaction from Naruto when it came to his family, before gathering the written exams from his desk and handing them out.

'All right, you have 1 and a half hours to complete the exam, do your best, and good luck. Your time begins now,' Iruka said, starting the countdown clock.

Everyone that wasn't Sasuke, Shikamaru or Naruto immediately turned the page over and began scrabbling furiously. Shikamaru calmly answered a few questions before going back to sleep, Sasuke wrote calmly as he worked his way through the paper, and Naruto wrote calmly and fast, finishing the test in 15 minutes before bringing his violin back out and playing for the remainder of the time. Iruka was about to criticize him for distracting the other students but the words got lost somewhere along the way to his mouth. All the others seem to be very reflective as they answered the paper, the last finishing with 5 minutes to spare. After each had finished, they listened to the sound of the violin silently. When the time finally finished, Naruto calmly put his violin away and allowed the gathering of the test papers to be quiet. Iruka announced after the papers were piled on his desk that they would now be moving out to the practice range to test their shuriken and kunai throwing. After that there would be a break for 45 minutes as he graded the written exams before they had the Taijutsu tournament and finally the Ninjutsu exam. As they walked through the academy to the practice range it was unnaturally quiet, as many members of the class were thinking about how different Naruto was today. Meanwhile Naruto was training in his sensor capabilities, and he had just found Sai, as he knew he would be following him, as the former ROOT was very overprotective when it came to Naruto's emotions. He rolled his eyes and continued walking.

The graduation class soon arrived at the practice range and each student had to throw 10 kunai and shuriken at a target, it could be all at the same time or one after the other. Many of the class got average results but managed to pass, although on principle the clan heirs and heiresses did better than students from civilian families. Finally it was the turn of one Uchiha Sasuke, and Naruto watched him closely to see exactly how much the boy had developed. The black-haired boy managed to get 8/10 for the kunai and 7/10 for the shuriken. Naruto summed up that he wasn't too bad but there were better, as the fangirls in the class cheered and screeched in support of "their Sasuke-kun". Poor Bastard.

'Uzumaki Naruto,' Iruka called him forward. He strode over picked up the shuriken and kunai, and in a flash of silver they were embedded in the center of the target. Everyone's jaws dropped, as he hadn't even been looking at the target, he had been reading a book. Naruto just went back to where he had been, leaning against a nearby tree.

Everyone got over their shock as Iruka, who then quickly began walking back to the academy as he had a bunch of test papers to mark, announced the lunch break. Naruto just walked over to where he knew Sai was before engaging him in conversation.

'You seem to be having fun,' Sai commented

'How could I be having fun? I am so bored,' Naruto whined, a bit like a child.

'You seem to be having fun messing with their heads,' Sai elaborated, grinning, a bit like a cat.

'You bet, some of the looks of shock, I should have bought a camera. Actually, I should have bought a camera,' Naruto said, frowning in disappointment.

The two of them continued to talk for the rest of the time, until Naruto had to go back to the academy for the tournament.

'I would say goodbye, but I know you're just going to follow me so you can tell Anko-sensei how I did before I can,' Naruto said smiling. He knew his friend too well. Seeing his friend nod he shook his head in exasperation before walking back to the academy.

3 minutes later he was rolling his eyes as Iruka explained the exam to the class; first the had to either survive sparring against him for five minutes, or beat him in those five minutes, before they would move on to the tournament.

Many of the class suffered a few hits while sparring Iruka, even among the clan heirs, and no one managed to beat him, discounting Sasuke.

Iruka called Naruto into the ring, and the blonde walked forward, slouched comfortably and pulled out the same book from before. Knowing that Naruto was trying to rile him up, Iruka stayed calm, and seeing that Naruto wouldn't be starting the spar, he charged. Naruto regarded Iruka lazily before disappearing in a blur of speed. The next second, everyone was watching as Iruka was trying to struggle futilely against a combination elbow-shoulder lock that Naruto had placed him in. He then tapped out, accepting the defeat. Naruto just strolled contently out of the ring, taking note of the jealous look that crossed Sasuke's face. The Taijutsu tournament that followed was probably the most interesting part of the day as it allowed Naruto to see how the clan heirs reacted in certain situations, although he almost smashed his head into the wall when Shikamaru, after passing the rounds necessary to graduate, forfeited, saying it was just too troublesome to continue.

Naruto passed through all of his fights easily, knocking out his opponents before they could react, using his insanely superior speed. Even his fight against Sasuke was a complete let down, as one moment he was standing opposite Sasuke in the ring, the next he was standing where Sasuke had been, with the Uchiha unconscious at his feet.

And the Ninjutsu exam was a complete disappointment; it was taken in a different room, where none could watch and one only has to perform three basic jutsu.

Naruto was walking out of the academy after he and the rest of the graduates were told to come here at 10:00 tomorrow to receive their team assignments. Naruto had already figured out who his team and sensei were going to be: Uchiha Sasuke and Yamanaka Ino, with their sensei being Kanako-nee-chan. Their sensei had to be Kanako as Sasuke was going to need training in his Sharingan and his mother was a retired kunoichi, therefore not technically allowed to train shinobi, and the only other person with the Sharingan was Kanako. Meanwhile his teammates had to be Sasuke and Ino as they were the Rookie and the Kunoichi of the Year, which always gets put with the class "dobe", in other words, him, thanks to his clone. Although he did wonder exactly how they planned to deal with Sai, who refused to be on a team unless Naruto was on the same team, as such he spent much of his time on solo missions nowadays, but he was scheduled to take the upcoming Chunin Exams in Konoha.

Naruto spent his time working on a personal project of his at the moment, creating a way to get rid of Anko-nee-chan's cursed mark of heaven. As he was unable to come up with any answers at the moment, he was too distracted, he decided to go to the Hokage's jutsu library to see if their was a technique that he felt like learning, or perhaps give him inspiration for his own. Naruto loved making new jutsu, it was so cool, especially since he could get a basic idea of one within a few hours and could begin thinking of viable hand seal chains within days. As such, several people, including the Hokage, labeled him a genius in the art. He had adapted several normal jutsus for Wind into Ice jutsus and was beginning to adapt lightning jutsus for his Storm affinity.

The next morning he strolled into the academy at 9:45. The only reason he was early was because he wanted to see what teams were assigned to Kurenai-nee-chan and Asuma, other wise he would have slept in a lot longer or gone off to Ichiraku Ramen. His blood clone had been right about that place; it was awesome.

As he lolled in his chair in the classroom along with the other graduates while they were waiting for Iruka, Naruto could sense Kurenai and Asuma's chakra walking closer to the academy. No doubt he was bugging her again, the idiot. You see, as soon as Kanako had revealed her true self to Konoha, Asuma dumped Kurenai to go and see if he could get a date with her, and when he was denied, came back and tried to hook up with Kurenai again. He had been Genjutsued into the hospital, and Kanako, Kurenai and Anko had become known as the Three Ice Queens of Konoha. A side effect of his actions was that he earned the contempt of Naruto, and had received quite a few beatings from it too. Naruto sat up in his chair as Iruka announced the teams containing the clan heirs:

'Team 7: Uchiha Sasuke, Yamanaka Ino, Uzumaki Naruto, with Sai as attaché, your Sensei is Hatake Kanako.

Team 8: Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, your Sensei is Yuuhi Kurenai.

Team 10: Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji, Haruno Sakura, your Sensei is Asuma Sarutobi.' Iruka then told them to remain here until their Sensei picks them up.

Within 5 minutes Kurenai was picking up her team, and Naruto could see the reaction on Kiba's face when he saw her and knew that he would be bugging Kurenai to marry him. No wonder Kurenai saw males as complete and utter idiots. Asuma then came in, and ordered his genin to follow after him, give Naruto smug glances all the while.

Soon the only team remaining was Naruto, who proceeded to talk apparently to thin air.

'You can come out now Sai.'

'Naruto, there's no one there,' Ino had changed how she addressed him but felt the need to point this out. Sasuke just watched in contempt of who was on his team. That is until Sai dropped from the ceiling.

'You didn't need to make such a spectacular entrance, you're only meeting the two on our team, I give it a 7/10,' Naruto commented. Sai pouted before snorting disdainfully and grumbling under his breath

'Do you two know each other?' Ino asked cautiously. So Naruto explained that they had been training together since they were eight, leaving out Sai's past with Danzo and ROOT. The team proceeded to split back up; Sasuke was brooding, Ino was fawning over him, Sai began to draw in his book, and Naruto brought a steaming bowl of hot ramen from one his storage scrolls. This was how Kanako found them one and a half hours later, except that Naruto was reading a scroll on Storm chakra control exercises. She looked in the doorway, having already checked that no pranks were in the vicinity, and smiled at seeing Sai and Naruto, who she considered younger brothers.

'Team 7, meet me up on the roof in five minutes,' she announced before disappearing with a shunshin. Naruto and Sai followed her example, shocking Ino and Sasuke. Sai disappeared in the classic leaf Shunshin, while Naruto did a combination of Water and Lightning.

Up on the roof

Both rushed to Kakano and hugged her, shouting in joy at seeing their nee-chan again, before Naruto asked her where she had been the last few days.

'Just an A-rank to destroy a bandit camp,' Naruto and Sai nodded unconcerned, but before they could do anything more the door to the stairwell opened and Sasuke and Ino walked out onto the roof. Kakano immediately went into business mode; she might relax with her otoutos in private, but in public, especially on a mission, she treated them the same as all the others.

'Alright, let's begin by doing introductions, state your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, specialities, and your dream. I will go first as Ino and Sasuke don't know me as well as you two. My name is Hatake Kanako, I have a few likes, a few dislikes, a number of hobbies that you're too young to know, my speciality is in Ninjutsu, but I can do moderately well in all the others, especially Fuuinjutsu, my dream…well I don't need to tell you that,' Kanako outlined with a straight face. Ino and Sasuke both had slight tick marks on their foreheads, while Naruto and Sai were desperately trying to control their laughter and failing. Kanako then motioned for Sai to introduce himself, as he was the other unknown to the academy two.

'My name is Sai; I like training, drawing and Naruto and my senseis. My dislikes are Danzo, his ROOT, traitors and rapists. My hobbies are drawing and hanging out with Naruto, including helping him with a few of his pranks. My speciality is Ink-based Ninjutsu, and stealth. My dream is to kill Danzo and his ROOT, in order to protect my friends.'

Ino was a little curious and asked Sai why he disliked ROOT and Danzo so much. Kakano and Naruto knew that she was treading on precarious ground and Naruto quickly began to introduce himself before she pushed Sai to answer.

'My name is Uzumaki Naruto; I like my adoptive family, Sai, the Yuki and Okami clans, Kenjutsu, Fuuinjutsu and training. My dislikes are the ways certain members of my adoptive family are treated or regarded by the public, rapists, lying bastards, the Civilian Council and Danzo. My hobbies are training in Fuuinjutsu, Kenjutsu or Ninjutsu, creating new Jutsu, flying, creating new seals, playing my violin, and sparing with Ero-Sennin when he's in Konoha. My specialities are in Kenjutsu, Fuuinjutsu, Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, along with my bloodlines. My dream is to become Hokage of Konoha in order to protect everyone I care about.' Ino and Sasuke regarded him in shock before Sasuke spoke up:

'What do you mean, bloodlines?'

'I have three, but two are classified, so I can only show you the third, which is from the Uzumaki clan, and allows me to make solid objects from my chakra alone, due to its potency,' Naruto explained calmly.

Kanako knew that if Sasuke learned of Naruto's Sharingan too soon, then he would react in a negative manner and become even more of a flight risk. She sighed internally, if they didn't tell Sasuke the truth soon, it was likely that he would abandon Konoha in search of a faster way to gain more power. She needed to talk to the Hokage. Kanako, Naruto and Sai listened as Sasuke and Ino introduced themselves, and drew a rapid conclusion; the academy reports were correct, Sasuke was a power-obsessed avenger, while Ino was a fangirl. It was the last one that made Kanako groan; half of the problems with fangirls was getting them to actually think about their crush logically.

'Alright, now that we have all introduced ourselves I need to tell you that you aren't actually Genins yet, as you have one more test to pass,' Kanako loved seeing the shocked faces on graduates when the are told this.

'What?' Ino was confused, very, very confused. 'But we passed the Academy exam, so therefore we are Genins, aren't we?'

'Not really, that was just to weed out the completely hopeless cases, who now attend one of the civilian schools. Meanwhile you have potential, but now you are being tested on whether you should be an active part in the shinobi forces. If you fail, you go back to the academy for another year, or are put into the reserves, in which you go through five years redoing basics and doing missions, although at the end you are promoted automatically to Chunin. But the missions they do are non-combat missions. Also, this test has a 66% failure rate. Anyway, meet me at training ground seven at 6 tomorrow for the test,' Kakano explained the meaning, and as predicted, the look on Ino and Sasuke's face was highly amusing. Unfortunately Naruto and Sai already knew of the test, so they looked bored as Kakano explained the meaning of the test. After Kakano shunshined away, Naruto turned to Sai:

'See you at Kurenai-nee-chan's training ground?' After Sai nodded an affirmative and began drawing very quickly in his book, Naruto focused his chakra in the form of two wings on his back and leapt off the academy roof.

Hearing Ino's startled shout behind him, Naruto grinned as the chakra quickly focused into solid wings that were attached to his back and he flew away towards training ground eight.

Back on the roof Sasuke was reflecting on how much Naruto had changed in the space of two days, now he was even claiming to have three bloodlines.

"_I will have that power dobe, and if you will not give it to me then I will take it." _

The next Morning, 8:30

The next morning Naruto and Sai casually walked into training ground seven two and a half hours after they were asked to be there, and ignored Ino berating them fro being so late. Finally it got to a point where Naruto got annoyed.

'Ino, how can we be late if nee-chan isn't even here yet,' he said to try and stop Ino's shouts. And it worked, she couldn't respond because she didn't have an adequate response to Naruto comment, so she asked another question to try and figure out the enigma that was the new Naruto.

'Why do you call her that, she isn't related to you.'

'Nee-chan is Nee-chan,' Naruto responded, not giving anything away, as he Ino was a massive gossip.

'Hey, sorry I'm late guys,' it seemed that Kanako had arrived. 'I got lost on the road of life.'

'If you got lost, then how did you find your way again?' Naruto asked, not really caring for the answer, as both he and Sai knew that Kanako had slept in late like they had.

'I followed you back to our house,' Kanako replied, smiling

'That is so clichéd Nee-chan,' Sai put in

'Obviously we shouldn't start a band, it would be terrible,' Naruto concluded finally.

'Anyway, on to the test, follow me. Your task is to get these three bells off of me within 3 hours. If you don't get a bell then you will be sent back to the academy, as there are 4 of you so we can always afford to send one back,' Kanako said before tying the bells to her belt.

'Your time begins now.'

Sasuke and Ino both immediately rushed off into the bush, knowing that competing against a jounin, one had to use tactics that were not straightforward.

Meanwhile Sai and Naruto just relaxed and sat down against a tree, where Naruto brought out his violin and began to play.

'Shouldn't you two be like, helping your teammates through the exam?' Kanako asked.

'We'll get them out of their situations after you have defeated them, and see if they respond well enough, which is unlikely,' Sai explained in a relaxed manner. Kanako's only response was to sweatdrop.

Half an hour later Sasuke got impatient and threw several Kunai at Kanako, before moving forward and engaging her in Taijutsu. And although Sasuke was the best in their age group discounting Naruto and Sai, Kanako was a jounin who was several years older, had a lot more experience and was simply, a lot better. Sasuke, although he got close enough to actually touch one of the bells soon, got the message, moving back and performing;

'Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!' Everyone was slightly shocked that an academy graduate had enough chakra to perform such a technique, before Naruto and Kakano remembered that it was a rite of passage for the Uchiha clan. When the fire dissipated, Sasuke was arrogant enough to think that Kakano had been incinerated by his technique and smirked. Before the ground below him burst open and he was dragged by his ankles into the ground, with only his head remaining above ground.

Kakano then rose from the ground in front of him and told him that although he was very good for a Genin, there was a reason that she was a Jounin, before walking off into the bushes after Ino.

Naruto sighed before putting his violin away and saying:

'Come on, we better go dig him out, as much as neither of us want to.'

As they dug Sasuke out of the ground, he didn't say a word, but as soon as he was out, he spat:

'I don't want nor need help from you dobe, for Uchiha never lose.'

'Wow, so much for being polite and saying "Thank you", he also sounds scarily delusional, I mean, "Uchiha never lose"?' Sai commented with a frown.

Kakano returned, saying;

'That Yamanaka is a fangirl to the point of it being scary, I put her in a Genjutsu showing her dead family, and she gets out of it fine. Then I put her in a Genjutsu showing a dead Sasuke and she immediately collapses and starts crying. It's just sad, because it shows that she cares more about Sasuke than her family. Actually, can you two go out and tie the two to the stumps here, I think it's time we give them a little demonstration.' Kanako ordered

'Sure thing Nee-chan,' the two of them chirped.

Within 15 minutes Ino and Sasuke had been tied to two of the three stumps and were about to wake up. As the two pairs of eyelids worked themselves open they came to the realization that they were in a highly uncomfortable position, with them being strapped to something in a way that meant their arms were secured and their shuriken and kunai out of reach. After she was sure that the two had woken up and were watching alertly, Kanako addressed the two:

'Now as you have both been missing the meaning of the test, I have arranged a demonstration that will give a hint. If at least one of you grasps the meaning of the test before the demonstration is over, all four of you will be given another chance after lunch for you to retrieve the bells. If not, then we shall have lunch and I shall decide who will be sent back to the academy.'

'But since Sai is only an attaché, shouldn't that mean that he should be sent back if the three of us fail?' Ino objected

'Are you suggesting putting someone else's head on the chopping block to try and cover your own failures? Those are the words of a coward,' Kanako was furious that an academy graduate would even suggest such a thing. 'Especially when he has skills greater than yours and Sasuke's combined and almost as great as my own.'

'Now if you would, Naruto, Sai,' she said, calm once more. The two facing her nodded and as one, moved to attack her.

To Sasuke and Ino, they were little more than blurs that occasionally launched jutsu and kunai. Sai and Naruto shepherded Kanako into a corner and began to launch Taijutsu attack after Taijutsu attack at her. Lightning, fire and Earth jutsu streak across what looked to be a battleground in front of the two before the dust finally settled with Kanako holding a kunai to Sai's and Naruto's throats. Then they nodded to one another and relaxed.

Ino was awed, it had seemed like every single hit had been thrown with the intent to kill, and the devastation caused by the fight was massive; trees were toppled, massive craters were steaming slightly, and dust had been thrown everywhere. Is this what shinobi were truly capable of? She then thought of her own skills and promised to train harder, no matter what Sasuke wanted.

Sasuke looked murderous, it seemed that no matter how much he trained, there was someone stronger than him. And although he could put up with Kanako being stronger than him, the fact that Naruto, the class dobe was also stronger than him was galling. He needed that power to kill Itachi, and he vowed that he would have it, no matter the consequences.

As Kanako walked over to the two graduates that were tied to the stumps, she asked:

'So why did they do better at fighting me than you two did?'

There was a long silence for about five minutes before Ino remembered a saying that she had heard her father say one time: "_Konoha is strong because we take care of our own, whether out in the field or at home, that is why Konoha is the strongest of the five."_

Ino had realized the meaning of the test; it was a test to see whether they could work together as a team, the bells were merely a distraction from the true aim.

'The true meaning of the test is teamwork,' she spoke up.

'Correct. The true test was to see if you could work together. If you cannot rely on your teammates, then whom can you rely on? After all, they will be facing the possibility of death alongside you. Now, time for lunch,' she announced the last part while bringing out four bento boxes.

'Naruto, Sai, do not feed or cut down the other two. This is as punishment, for they forgot the most cardinal of shinobi rules in Konoha,' She then stood and walked off into the forest. As soon as she was out of sight, Naruto opened another of the bento boxes and offered half of it to Ino.

'But she said not to,' Ino objected.

'But if the test was over she wouldn't care, and if it was still going then she would applaud that I am ignoring the rules to help my teammate,' Naruto reasoned before giving her some of the food as Sai did the same with Sasuke.

'He's right, you know,' all turned to see Kanako watching them from the tree line. 'I was exactly the same as you once Sasuke, thinking that your teammates would only slow you down and that the mission was all that was important. I was a fool. But enough of that, you passed, you can cut them down. I will report your success to the Hokage.' She disappeared in a shunshin.

'I will see you guys later,' Naruto said; he had a project to work on.

The current project than Naruto was working was really just an adjustment to his ninjatos; he was planning to engrave seals on them to give them special abilities like the swords of the Seven Mist Swordsmen. Along with making them unbreakable and putting seals on the sheaths to make them able to hold his blades while being physically smaller. Small advantages like that could make all the difference while in the heat of battle. He also had Kage Bunshin practicing fighting with only one of his ninjatos while forming single-handed hand seals with the other.

On a positive hand, he had finally been able to start practicing his Mokuton chakra exercises, as it seemed he had finally found the balance needed in combining his Water and Earth chakra. Although his training time would be cut down because of the time he had to spend with his Genin team. Speaking of which, at the end of the demonstration he thought he saw a flicker of determination in Ino that he hadn't seen before; hopefully she was set on being a proper kunoichi now.

Kanako shunshined into the Hokage's office slightly later than the rest of the team senseis. Although she was lazy to those with lower ranking than her, anything equal or above she tried not to be as late as she had been while acting as Kakashi.

'Team 1-Team 6 have failed Kakano, have yours?' The Hokage asked rather irritably.

'In fact, no they didn't, the passed, if only just, but I will need to talk to you more later,' Kakano said, surprising the majority of the jounin senseis.

'Must have been the Uchiha,' one remarked, and although a few nodded, those that had spent time in the ANBU or training Naruto knew it wasn't.

'Team 8?'

'Team 8 passed, although there are certain things I need to clarify, but apart from that it shouldn't be any problem,' Kurenai said, from over against the wall next to Anko.

'As Team 9 is still in circulation under Gai, Team 10?'

'Team 10 passed, although I don't understand why you didn't give me Ino, but clearing up the fangirl shouldn't be too difficult,' Asuma grunted before turning back to annoy Kurenai.

'In that case you can all leave apart from Kakano, who wanted to talk about something?' The Hokage directed.

After the others had left Hokage turned back to Kakano.

'Alright, what is it you have to tell me?'

'Hokage-sama, it is clear that Uchiha Sasuke is jealous of the power that Naruto is displaying and unless we tell him the truth soon, he will become even more of a flight risk than he already is. Also he doesn't fit well with anyone else in my team, so I am considering putting him in the reserves, but if I do that then he becomes even more likely to try and abandon Konoha. And if we put him with a private tutor, with orders to try and teach him as little as possible, then he will quickly grow frustrated,' Kakano reported, as she knew that having Sasuke on her team would be a clear negative impact, but trying to keep him loyal was important too.

'Hm, we will keep him on your team for the moment, but if he steps over the line, bring the hammer down on him, Understood?' Hiruzen outlined

'Perfectly, Hokage-sama.'

'Good, now I have to get back to paperwork, which, even with my shadow clones working on it at the same time, is rather tedious.'

Training Ground 7, 7:30, the next morning

Ino and Sasuke came to the training ground to see hundreds of Narutos doing various training exercises; some where balancing senbons on their fingers, others were doing Taijutsu sparring, others were practicing sword katas, other seemed to be writing or drawing, they couldn't tell.

Sasuke clenched his teeth angrily before shouting,

'Which one of you is the real dobe?' All of the clones pointed towards Naruto, who was in the middle of all the different groups, and seemed to be meditating, while sitting on top of a miniature hurricane, with his chakra wings stretched out behind him. Ino looked on in awe; he looked so serene, and if he could do that then he must be really strong. Sasuke, meanwhile, just stomped up to him only for Naruto to open his eyes and release his chakra. He then stepped down off of the hurricane and his wings flared brightly before he said:

'Such negative emotion is unbecoming of a shinobi, Uchiha.' The coldness in his voice made Ino shiver. It reaffirmed her conclusion that Naruto wasn't someone you wanted to piss off, which Sasuke just did.

'You have no right to demand any of my techniques, and you definitely shouldn't piss me off, as you have no idea exactly what I am capable of.'

'I have every right, as the Last of the Uchiha and heir of the Uchiha clan, Konoha's greatest clan, so I demand you give me all your techniques,' Sasuke arrogantly proclaimed. Ino cringed

'Due to your arrogance and your attitude, you are currently the member of this team that has the least potential. And your clan was a clan of thieves and liars, stealing other people's hard work in desperation for power,' Naruto voice grew even colder, and Ino felt as if she was in a blizzard.

'Ha, as if you would know anything about the greatness of the founding clans of Konoha. Your mother was probably some drunk whore who didn't know who the father-' this was all Sasuke managed to get out before a fist drove into his stomach and he was launched into, and through, 3 trees. He fell to the ground after the third tree, and caused a small crater. He was so injured that he couldn't move his head, and he could do nothing but watch as Naruto appeared above him and began raining blows down on his body.

Sai who had just arrived heard a massive crash and he ran forward to see Ino screaming in horror as Naruto was beating the life from Sasuke. He immediately ran forward, knowing that if he didn't stop Naruto Sasuke would definitely die, and restrained Naruto. After calming Naruto, till he agreed to stop killing Sasuke at least, he sent an ink messenger bird to Kanako to explain the situation while he took Sasuke to the hospital using a huge ink eagle.

After they had left Naruto continued to vent his rage on the surrounding trees, as his clones had all finally dispersed and Ino was well out of harms way. He smashed through quite a few, and Ino just watched in awe and sadness as he continued to punch his fists through tree trunk after tree trunk. Awe because she didn't think he was using any chakra to enhance his strikes, and sadness because she could see how much he suffered not knowing any family.

"_No wonder he regards his close friends as his brothers and sisters,"_ she thought, " _he must be desperate to know what the feeling of family is like." _

Kanako turned up around ten minutes later and simply looked at the destruction Naruto had wrought before turning to Ino, who was beside her.

'So what happened?'

'We came in and found Naruto training with hundreds of what looked like clones, and Sasuke got jealous and went up to the real one and began to demand that he give all of his techniques as his right as the Last of the Uchiha. Naruto then called the Uchiha clan a bunch of thieves and liars that steal other people's hard work. Sasuke in response called Naruto's mother a whore, and Naruto snapped, and sent Sasuke flying through three trees with one punch,' Ino said, sad that neither of her teammates could get along.

'I knew it would be something along those lines,' Kanako sighed, 'You see, that's about the only insult that can anger Naruto that much, everything else just makes him judge you as weak. Once he calms down, go ahead and ask him to help train you, as he calms down pretty quickly when he's trying to help others.'

Ino nodded, before Kanako told her that she had to go to the hospital and check in on Sasuke. Much as she thought he was a spoilt brat, she knew that after seeing Naruto getting that angry. He would be injured for quite a long time, though she doubted it would be permanent.

Entering the hospital reception she saw Sai leaning on the wall next to a corridor and walked over to him stiffly.

'How is he?'

He merely shook his head and said that she'd better see for himself. He then walked with her down the corridor and stopped outside of room 23. Kanako paled; Room 23 was the pending room for potential long-term patients. Sai opened the door and let her through the door first. She walked into the room to see Tsunade writing notes on a clipboard, and as soon as she saw Tsunade, the head of the hospital, she knew it was bad.

'How bad is it?' She asked the Sennin.

'On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst, I would rate it about a 9 to 9 and a half. Naruto really did a number on the kid. Any idea why he did?'

'According to Yamanaka Ino, who was there at the time, Sasuke called Naruto's mother a whore,' Kanako said, wincing at the last part.

'Well, that I can understand,' Tsunade said understandingly.

'Do you know how long he's going to be in here for?'

'Definitely a year. At least.'

'Ouch.'

Ino had been taught by Naruto for a duration of 15 minutes so far and she had already worked out that he was a bit of a training freak. If he wasn't talking about training, then he was muttering about his projects and if he wasn't doing that, then he was shouting at her about her training. For the past few minutes she had been attempting the Tree climbing exercise while Naruto was writing up a training schedule for her. She could walk up the tree, she just didn't have the amount of chakra necessary for staying up there for a long time and, as such, Naruto told her to do it until he said stop.

Naruto, meanwhile was giggling at the thought of Ino's face when she saw her training schedule: he had finally made up his mind, when he got to Jounin, he was definitely going to train a group of Genins just so he could torture them in training, as his senseis had done to him.

5 minutes later he told Ino to stop and grab a drink before coming over to where he was sitting, which Ino did all too gratefully. Coming over she accepted the schedule and looked over it, and proceeded to almost choke on the water she had been swallowing, before the flash of a camera blinded her. She then, after recovering from her coughing fit, asked Naruto whether he was insane, to which he just cackled evilly.

Two hours later Kanako and Sai arrived back at the training ground, having had to go to the Hokage's office to explain why Sasuke would be in the hospital for the next year and a half. Hiruzen had been about to give Naruto endless D-ranks for 6 months but realized that Naruto had quite successfully delayed his problem of Sasuke being a flight risk, so he let him off. But he did say that Naruto would have to go to Mikoto and explain why he had put her son in hospital for the next 18 months. Both Naruto and Ino accepted the news quite happily when Kanako announced that their team would therefore be comprised of Ino, Sai and Naruto. Since Ino would be the only one learning the basics they would be able to get through them relatively quickly and move on to more advanced stuff. It also made it more likely that they would be competing in the Chunin Exams in six months.


	4. Chapter 4: Genin and Wave

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

For the past three months Kanako's team had been primarily training Ino up to standard with the rest of the team, which was incredibly hard as Sai was at least high Jounin level and Naruto was almost Kage level. They were aiming to do the minimum required number of missions completed in order to enter the Chunin Exams in three months and only had one C-rank mission remaining in order to be able to qualify. As they returned Tora to Madame Shijimi, the Daimyo's wife, Kanako notified the Hokage that they were here for a C-rank, although Team 8 happened to be there at the same time, asking for the exact same thing. As there was only one C-rank available at the time Naruto suggested that they both did it, before Kanako and Kurenai got into a fight. The Hokage seemed happy with the idea and agreed, before asking for Tazuna, the client, to be shown in.

'Hic, what is this, I asked for ninja not a bunch of snot-nosed brats and their mommies,' Tazuna made his entrance by generally insulting everyone in the two teams, but none more so than Kanako and Sai, who never knew their mothers. Sai to Tazuna mentioned this with a suggestion that he doesn't do it again as Sai held his tanto to Tazuna's throat. Thankfully for Tazuna, Kakano ordered Sai to stand down before he drew blood. Kakano had been given overall command of the mission, as she had more experience than Kurenai did, and she told both teams to be at the west gate out of Konoha in 3 hours prepared for a 3 week long mission at the very least.

3 hours later west gate

Naruto was the first member of the mission to be at the meeting point as he was 10 minutes early, and with nothing better to do he pulled out his trusty violin and began to play. The song reminded all that heard of leaving, saying goodbye, and arriving as the other members of the mission arrived they stayed quiet, knowing that listening to the violin would provide them with entertainment until they left. That is, until Kiba arrived. Everyone apart from Kiba, Kanako and Tazuna had arrived and were waiting. Kiba arrived quietly but what stopped Naruto playing was when he realized that Kiba was trying to get Kurenai to go on a date with him. Eyes flashing with anger, he walked up behind Kiba and hit him very hard on the head, before saying:

'I really do hope you are not harassing my Nee-chan Kiba, because if you are, I will have to teach you what happens to those who harass my friends. It is very painful.'

'Why the hell are you calling her Nee-chan anyway? Its not like you're related or anything, after all you are just an orphan,' Kiba said obstinately, not knowing the line he had stepped across. Ino, Sai, Kurenai and the newly arrived Kanako winced as they saw Naruto's eyes flash murderously. All four of them had to restrain Naruto from beating Kiba into hospital, as they needed him to complete the mission. After Kanako and Sai had managed to calm Naruto down, and Kurenai explained to her team not to piss Naruto off, and explained the incident with Sasuke a few months ago. Kakano told every member of the two teams minus the Jounin to tell her what was in their packs, although Team 7 had their equipment sealed into scrolls. Thankfully she didn't have to had out replacement packs, and so they set off. The entire company was bored for the first few hours as there was nothing to look at apart from trees, although Kakano was reading her smut and Naruto was reading the history of the first shinobi war to see if it had any clues about the Mokuton techniques the Shodaime Hokage used. Eventually though Ino asked Tazuna why Wave didn't have any ninja and they got into a conversation that everyone ended up listening to.

'Well we once had a very good relationship with a ninja village on a nearby island off the coastline, but it was destroyed several decades ago,' Tazuna said

'What was the village called?' Ino asked curiously, as this was the first time she had heard of such a village.

'It was Uzushiogakure no Sato, a village famed for its skills in Kenjutsu and Fuuinjutsu, that was destroyed by a combined attack from Iwa and Kumo just before the second shinobi war, thus starting said shinobi war,' Naruto spoke up, remembering that he was descended from this village. 'It was also Konoha's ally before it was destroyed.'

'Obviously Konoha still remembers its allies,' Tazuna said, before continuing, 'but I would have expected shinobi about your sensei's age to remember, not a child of 12. So what connection do you have with the island?'

'My mother was the only Uzumaki survivor of the attack, but she died a few years ago, as such, I am the last Uzumaki,' Naruto said proudly, but at the same time, sadly.

'I don't see what's so great about this village, I mean, if they were wiped out, then obviously they were pretty weak, right?' Kiba couldn't help but voice his opinion, and try and put Naruto down.

'Kiba, if Iwa and Kumo hadn't lost so many shinobi wiping out the Uzumaki, then Konoha would have lost the 3rd Shinobi War, Yondaime Hokage or not. To this day Konoha remembers their failure at helping the Uzumaki. The swirl of Uzushio is on many of the Chunin flak jackets, and can even be seen in the leaf on your hitae-ate. Konoha remembers that they could not save their sister village. A village that was also highly influential on the founding of Konoha itself. It was the Uzumaki that sighed the peace agreement between the Senju and Uchiha, and they modeled Konoha's shinobi ranks off that of the Uzumaki,' Naruto said, making many of the Genin look at their hitae-ates.

'I bet you're making half of that up to make them seem important,' Kiba refused stubbornly.

'It's the truth, Kiba. Hashirama, the Shodaime Hokage, was married to an Uzumaki. Called Mito Uzumaki, who was the greatest Fuuinjutsu user in history, although Naruto is getting very close,' Kanako sighed, before eye smiling at the end. Kiba just huffed and continued walking.

2 hours later the trees began to disappear and grasslands started to dot their surroundings. All of the shinobi were on a higher guard than before, they could feel the uneasy quiet around them, and even Tazuna could feel it. Up ahead, the two Jounin and Team 7 saw what was obviously a Genjutsu, and a very poor one too. They all glanced at each other and nodded, agreeing that they would see how this played out. Team 8 knew that something was amiss, as their different bloodlines were geared towards tracking, but hadn't caught sight of the 'puddle'. As such the company walked past the puddle peacefully.

The company turned to the sight of Kanako and Kurenai being shredded by a shuriken chain. Team 8, apart from Shino, panicked, while Team 7 remained calm, as they knew that the Jounin had kwararimied at the last moment, as shown by the splinters of wood left on the ground.

'Two piggies down, 6 more to go, and then we can kill the bridge builder,' one of the two assailants chanted in an almost smug tone as they charged to the genin.

Naruto immediately moved forward, as did Sai, as the ones closest to the two attackers were Kiba and Hinata. And although Naruto was still annoyed by the disparaging remarks that Kiba had made, he was still one a Konoha ninja; therefore he was obligated to save his life if necessary. Unsheathing a ninjato in his right hand and pushing Kiba to one sword with his left he blocked the chain and punched his opponent in the stomach, launching the missing-nin back and having the extra effect of staggering Sai's opponent, as they were still connected by the chain. Confident that they could deal with their opponents as they only looked to Genin, Naruto's opponent released the chain from his gauntlet, before attacking Sai to allow his friend to do the same. Naruto just watched calmly as Sai went on the defensive, knowing that if necessary he could deal with both missing-nins, before deciding that he would just handle them quickly to allow Ino to interrogate them by mind-walking. Sneaking up behind the two missing-nin he used the pommel of his sword to knock out one, distracting the other one and allowing Sai to kill him. Pulling out a bingo book as Kakano and Kurenai reappeared, he quickly found them and called out to Kakano.

'Nee-chan, these two are the famed Demon brothers, Chunin-level missing-nins from Kirigakure, who are soon to be dead. Ino, can you mind-walk the unconscious one to see if they have company?' Hearing the affirmative, the company settled down to have a break while Ino was mind-walking through the mind of the missing-nin and Kakano was grilling Tazuna about lying in the mission contract.

'You're lucky there are two teams on this mission, and that one of them contains Naruto and Sai,' Kanako berated quietly. Unfortunately Kiba picked up on the last part.

'What's so great about Naruto and Sai, not to sound disrespectful, but they're just Genin aren't they?' Kiba knew that he owed Naruto his life, so he tried not to insult him.

'Due to certain circumstances, both of them had received training that is higher than an ANBU. The Naruto you knew at the academy was just a clone that was told to act stupid so that people would underestimate him. Both have vast experience in the field as both have worked with the ANBU black ops on certain occasions, all of which are classified. The reasons for this is classified too, although it will be revealed during the finals at the Chunin Exam, as due to the ne laws that the Sandaime made, it is impossible to skip shinobi ranks. Along with the fact that he wants to make a lot of publicity for Konoha,' Kanako explained after cursing her big mouth, she shouldn't have mentioned it at all.

All of the Genin looked at Naruto and Sai, who were watching out for Ino, in awe. The thought that someone their age had been on a bunch of highly classified missions was awe-inspiring. A few minutes after this revelation Ino came back out from walking the mindscape of the second of the Demon Brothers, having found the information that she was looking for. She then sat down and accepted a drink of water from Kanako, while Naruto was cutting of the heads of the Demon Brothers.

'Alright, the Demon Brothers are two of a group of four missing-nin that are working for Gato, who wants the bridge builder eliminated. The other two are Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, and someone they just know as Haku. I looked through their memories and apparently Haku can use Ice techniques and was also trained as a hunter-nin.' Ino explained briefly after gulping down some water. 'However the Demon Brothers were just used to see what our strengths were, as they knew that Haku was watching from the nearby tree line. Gato also mentioned a group of missing-nin from Amegakure that he would hire if Zabuza's group weren't up to the task.'

'In that case it is likely that Zabuza himself will have a go before we reach Tazuna's house. We will camp here for the night and finish the journey tomorrow. It would be a bad idea to be walking into a potential ambush after sundown. We will have a guard shift through the night, as thankfully there are 8 of us, meaning 4 shifts of two. First will be Naruto and Kiba then Hinata and Shino, Ino and Sai, and me and Kurenai,' Kakano outlined.

'One last thing Sensei, one of the missing-nins from Ame was called Aoi Rokusho. I thought that it might be of some relevance,' Ino said as the others began to wander off to bed.

Naruto's eyes sparked with this information, as Aoi Rokusho was a traitor to Konoha, and also possessed an heirloom from his family.

The next day all were woken up by Kakano and Kurenai, and they began traveling to the Land of Waves once more. Halfway through the they came to the shoreline of the land of Fire and Tazuna directed them to where a man with a paddleboat was waiting anxiously to ferry them across.

'Tazuna, I cannot take them all at once, and I will not make two journeys,' As Tazuna was trying to find a way to answer, as he didn't want to lose half of the shinobi guarding him, Kanako turned to Naruto.

'Can you make another boat using your Uzumaki bloodline?' Naruto studied the boat intently before nodding. He then moved a few metres away down the shoreline and sat down on the sand, palms in front of him.

He then began to channel intense chakra. Everyone turned to watch what he was doing and Kiba opened his mouth to speak before Kanako stopped him, saying quietly:

'Hush, he needs to concentrate.' The teams, disbelieving apart from Kanako, Kurenai and Sai, watched as Naruto molding his chakra in an exact replica of the boat beside them, oars and all. A quick burst of chakra later, and there was an exact copy of the first boat in front of Naruto, who reached into a pocket on his vest for a chakra pill. He then came over and said:

'We will travel with Tazuna in this boat while Kurenai's team follows us across using the secondary boat,' Kurenai walked over to the boat before stepping into it, as if it was a completely normal occurrence. As the two boat set off into the mist Kiba whispered to Kurenai:

'What was that? I have never seen that much chakra before, and didn't know it could be used to create solid objects.'

'It can't, not normally anyway. The ability is the Uzumaki bloodline, and it allows them to create fully functioning objects purely from their chakra, as theirs is slightly different from that of normal ninja. It's why Naruto is able to attach wings to his back using his chakra and fly above Konoha,' she replied, 'but the best part about it is that they are able to reabsorb the chakra they spend creating the object after they finish using it, which is why this boat is only temporary.'

Kiba and the others of Team 8 were stunned by the usefulness of such a bloodline.

'Of course, it has its limitations, as does every bloodline; it cannot create food or living things, only those that are dead. Likewise it cannot create metals for crafting or smithing as the purity needed is almost impossible to gain, although is can create already crafted metal that has been molded into an item,' Kurenai said, knowing that all bloodlines have their limits and can only get one so far.

An hour and a half later they arrived on the beaches of the Land of Wave, having seen the gargantuan size of the bridge that Tazuna is building on their way there. Naruto repeated the process that he had taken on the shoreline of the Land of Fire, simply in reverse, reabsorbing all the chakra he had spent initially. While this did increase the size of his chakra network, which should have debilitated him, thankfully Kyare was using her chakra to protect the walls of his network and allowing it to happen without notice from his body. As Tazuna watched the boatman row off into the mist once more, the ninja were preparing themselves for the encounter with Zabuza that would undoubtedly happen soon.

'Kanako-sensei, I request permission to be the one which engages Zabuza,' Naruto was known to be serious by all as they heard the mode of address he used for Kanako. The boy was silent for a moment as Kanako considered the request, before pressing his case.

'We know that he cannot beat me in either Ninjutsu of Kenjutsu, which are likely to be his two main strengths, and if he presses in Taijutsu, I can definitely match him even if he has the advantage in strength and size. I will have the advantage in speed.'

Kanako thought for a moment more before nodding silently. Naruto was best suited to take on the A-rank missing-nin, as he was an S-ranked nin already in the Bingo book, due to his exploits as Konoha's Deathly Angel over his supposed academy years. Add to that the fact that Naruto could beat Zabuza in his greatest strengths, and it was pretty much game over for the former Kiri SHARK Captain.

Naruto placed himself next to Tazuna as the group walked quietly down the wide dirt road. When the mist began to set in the shinobi all began to tense.

Game on.

Seeing a presence through the mist, Hinata quickly threw a kunai towards a nearby tree. Kiba, checking to see what it was, came back with a kunai and a terrified white rabbit. Team 7 and the Jounin, on seeing the rabbit, immediately knew that it was a kwawarimi, as the rabbit's fur indicated that it had been raised inside a house.

Naruto ears picked up the sound of a heavy object passing through the air: whoomp, whoomp whoomp.

'Get Down!' The shout rang from four different throats, those of Naruto, Kanako, Sai and Kurenai.

They ducked just in time to avoid being cut in half by what looked to be a massive sword, which proceeded to be lodged in a tree behind the group. After checking that everyone had indeed managed to get down in time, the group looked up at the man now balancing on the massive hilt sticking out beside the tree the blade was buried in.

'Momochi Zabuza, missing-nin of Kirigakure, wanted for attempting to assassinate the Yondaime Mizukage, renowned as The Demon of the Hidden Mist, and later one of the Seven Swordsmen of The Mist,' Kanako said as she watched Zabuza carefully

'Hatake Kanako, the woman said to have copied a thousand jutsu with her Sharingan, to the point where she is known as Sharingan Kanako. I must say, I was surprised to hear that you were a woman, after all those years being known as a man. Fighting you will be fun,' Zabuza said in a condescending voice as he looked over the Konoha genin.

'It won't be me you're fighting, but him,' Kanako replied, pointing to Naruto.

'Ha, you expect a genin to beat me, I thought you shinobi from Konoha disliked the idea of needless sacrifice,' Zabuza crowed, thinking that Kanako had lost her nerve.

'I requested to fight you, Zabuza, after all, I do like sparring fellow Kenjutsu masters,' Naruto said, drawing his twin ninjatos, which now had seal along the blades towards the hilt.

'If you requested to fight me, then who am I to deny your wish?' Zabuza asked rhetorically before forming hand seals for a jutsu.

'Water Style: Hidden Mist Jutsu!' Almost instantly the battlefield was covered in a dense mist that was almost impossible to see through. Naruto silently released some of his chakra weights down to level 2 out of 20 (they had been at level 9). And completely took off his 5 layers of resistance seals. The result being that Naruto would be a complete blur to anything other than a 3 tomoe Sharingan.

'There's no point Zabuza in using the hiding technique, I can still sense your chakra, and it seems you're in the process of making a water clone,' Naruto announced, confident that he would win, as his skills countered or beat Zabuza's own.

Meanwhile Zabuza was cursing internally, he loathed sensor ninjas, especially ones that could actually do some damage, as they completely nullified the usefulness of his favorite technique. He therefore abandoned the jutsu, as it was now just wasting him chakra.

The mist slowly dissipated to reveal Zabuza standing on top of the water of the river that separated the Land of Waves from the mainland.

'Well now that you can see me, perhaps it's time to introduce myself and see if you know who I am,' and with that rather relaxed statement Naruto flared his chakra into the form of two wings. Shocking Tazuna, Zabuza and watchers that were hidden in the trees.

_"What the hell is Konoha's Deathly Angel doing here, in fact what is Konoha doing here?"_ Killer B thought in his head. He and his team of Omoi, Karui, Samui and Yugito had received a contract from the Land of Waves to protect a certain bridge builder from being killed. And it seems Konoha had too, and although he didn't like to deal with Konoha unless absolutely necessary, he didn't like the idea of going back to Kumo with a failed mission either.

_"Let's see how this plays out. Either we will have to deal with Momochi Zabuza or we will have to deal with Konoha. Although this should be a good chance to see how good this kid really is." _

Back on the water Zabuza was spluttering in disbelief:

'Konoha's Deathly Angel is a genin?' Zabuza couldn't contain his horror, turning to Kanako.

'Yep!' Kanako gave him a thumbs up and an eye smile

'I did most of my missions while a blood clone took my place at the academy and acted like a complete dobe,' Naruto said, how he loved messing with people's heads.

'But the first sighting of you was 3 years ago, which means that you were on a mission in Kiri, which was a battleground at the time, at around the age of 9!' Zabuza was now pointing comically at the utterly relaxed Naruto.

'Yep, same as Sai!' Naruto chirped at Sai, who was by now insanely bored and had gone back to drawing.

_"Oh shit, come on, I don't think I am able to take Konoha's Deathly Angel, Konoha's Panther, Sharingan Kanako and Konoha's Genjutsu Mistress!" _Zabuza shouted at himself internally but his sense of pride won out and he readied his familiar blade.

'Ah the Kubikiribōchō, so it seems this will be a Kenjutsu match then?' Naruto asked, readjusting his grip on his twin ninjatos.

The two simply stared at each other for the next few minutes, the tension between becoming almost physical as the two worked up their adrenalin systems unconsciously. Then a leaf flew across Naruto's field of vision and the next thing all the spectators knew he had his ninjatos blocked by Zabuza's sword as Zabuza went on the defensive.

_"Holy shit he's fast, I barely got Kubikiribōchō up in time to stop myself from being cut in half!"_ Zabuza thought worriedly as he and Naruto looked into each other's eyes.

Naruto then moved backwards a few paces before intoning gravely:

'Uzumaki Style: Dance of the Bloody Thorns and Roses'

Zabuza's eyes widened as Naruto then began to spin elegantly into forms, each one whirling around his frame, only making small cuts. But Zabuza saw a flaw that he could exploit and swung Kubikiribōchō straight at what he thought was Naruto to get him to stop attack. What he didn't expect was for Naruto to roll over the blade and inflict deeper cuts on his right arm, right side of his torso, right thigh, and right calf. Zabuza hastily retreated, and cursed himself for his carelessness; it seemed that the tendons in his right arm and right leg had been cut, impairing his mobility and his ability to wield his blade.

Naruto grinned, about to go in for the killing move when senbons sprouted from Zabuza's neck, Ice senbons. Which meant that Zabuza's accomplice, this Haku, was a Yuki clan member, Naruto's eyes widened at the implications; he could use this to perhaps recruit the two into Konoha's forces.

'Thank you for your assistance in allowing me to deal with this missing-nin, Konoha nin,' Naruto turned at the rather young and melodious voice. Kiri Hunter-nin mask, check, Kiri style of dress, check, age, no.

'It was my pleasure, Hunter-nin,' Unfortunately Naruto and the Konoha group had other issues to deal with, and Naruto knew that the injuries Zabuza would keep out of action for at least two weeks, even with a skilled healer. So he let the "Hunter-nin" take Zabuza away, and returned to where his teammates were standing, before turning to the forest to the right of the group and telling the ninjas hiding there to come out.

The Kumo nin looked at each other before Killer B shrugged and leapt into the open. Kanako, Kurenai and Sai looked at them with passive faces, concealing their surprise, while Ino, Kiba, Hinata and Shino couldn't control their reactions.

'What are you here for brother of the Raikage and fellow Kumo nin?' Naruto asked in an even tone.

'It seems that there was a mission request to protect a certain bridge builder sent to two different shinobi villages,' said one of the Kumo kunoichi, who had blonde hair in a ponytail. At this everyone looked at Tazuna, who began to sweat before saying:

'Perhaps we can deal with this at the house?'

'Now dat's an idea, yo!' The large man with sunglasses rapped, badly.

'Shut the hell up B!' The same kunoichi shouted

The Konoha Jounin got the feeling that they would have a very large headache soon.

45 minutes later the now completely dysfunctional group arrived at Tazuna's house, with everyone having varying levels of a headache apart from Naruto, Sai and Killer B. The former two had just tuned everything out, while the latter was the one annoying everyone else. Thankfully he had stopped his rapping the closer they got to the house as he tried to think of what his team could offer to the Konoha shinobi that they didn't already have. With the presence of 4 A or S class nins, they already had this situation well in hand, his team wouldn't be able to do much. But he figured that he would be able to work something out with the two Jounin from Konoha.

Meanwhile the Kumo team were regarding the Konoha genin warily, especially Naruto and Sai, who were walking right behind Tazuna and talking animatedly about the various aspects of art, of all things. Samui was wondering how they grew so powerful and what might be the best ways to perhaps constrain them if necessary. Karui was wondering what made them so special to have been trained so early, while Yugito was thinking about sparring Naruto. Omoi was overthinking things again as he wondered what their Raikage would say if saw them cooperating with Konoha and if he would exile them for it.

'Tsunami, I'm home!' They heard the sounding of rapid feet before the door opened quickly.

'Dad! You're back! And, you did bring a lot of ninja back with you,' she said in a slightly hesitant tone at the end as she regarded the various looks of the ninja standing in front of her house.

'Well, there seems to have been a bit of confusion,' eyebrows of many of the shinobi rose slightly at this before Tazuna continued, 'but I am sure we can figure something out.'

All of the shinobi then followed Tazuna into the house apart from B, Kakano and Kurenai, who stayed outside in order to figure out what they were going to do in regards to the organization of the mission.

In the house, the shinobi of the two different villages were regarding one another carefully, before Kiba burst out:

'Why the hell are we working with Kumo nin anyway? I mean, weren't we enemies?'

'Just because we were enemies during and after the third shinobi war, doesn't mean we are currently. That is the way of the shinobi world, those that are your enemies now may one day be your friends,' spoke Naruto in a clam tone

'And don't get me started on you, what the hell was that about you and Sai being Konoha's Deathly Angel whatever it was?' Kiba demanded, turning on him. The Kumo genin just watched on bemusedly. Naruto sighed heavily before bringing out his Bingo book and telling Kiba to go to page 34 before handing it to him. Kiba did so, with Hinata and Shino reading over his shoulders:

Konoha's Deathly Angel

Name: Unknown

Ninjutsu: SS-ranked abilities on Ninjutsu, able to hold his own with some of the best in the field.

Kenjutsu: SS-ranked, able to defeat members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist with ease, master of the Uzumaki styles and dances.

Taijutsu: S-ranked, able to defeat and outlast Maito Gai, Konoha's Taijutsu Master, Created his own style, able to adapt to any situation

Genjutsu: A-ranked, able to defeat and out compare most in the field of Genjutsu, but it is his weakest field.

Fuuinjutsu: SS-ranked, reportedly a sealing master better than Jiraiya of the Sennin, able to use seals in the midst of battle by drawing them in midair.

Bloodlines: Has the Uzumaki bloodline to make temporary solid objects through his chakra alone.

Seem to has an unknown bloodline allowing him to mix his affinities.

Age: Unknown

Associates: Typically seen cooperating with his partner, Konoha's Panther, or Sharingan Kanako

Trained from an early age by some of Konoha's best shinobi, but reason for this is unknown

First sighting: Midst of the Kiri bloodline purge 3 years ago, Battle of Bone Fires where he and a team of Konoha's ANBU held off over 20 enemy nin and 50 mercenaries while other teams were evacuating Kaguya survivors from the clan compound. Created two solid wings connected to his back while fighting subconsciously

S-Ranked-Approach with supreme caution as this Shinobi is approaching the rank of SS, which only a few members in history have ever held, the most recent being the Yondaime Hokage.

Kiba looked up as he finished reading before saying:

'Holy shit!' In his shock, the bingo book fell from his grasp and the redheaded Kumo kunoichi made an attempt to catch it, no doubt to read the contents, but before she could do so Naruto's hand snatched it out of the air. And he quickly put it back in his pocket, smiling slightly.

A few moments later the door to the living room in which the were all gathered, rattled open as Kakano, Kurenai and B all walked in smiling. The genin all looked at them curiously before Kakano decided to explain:

'We decided that neither group wanted to go back to their village without a completed mission report so we decided that we may as well complete this mission together. So now that that has been decided, we may as well give introductions. As Konoha has two teams present we will go first: I am Hatake Kakano, Jounin-Sensei of Team 7'

'Yamanaka Ino, of Team 7'

'Sai of Team 7

'Uzumaki Naruto of Team 7'

'Yuuhi Kurenai, Jounin-Sensei of Team 8'

'Aburame Shino of Team 8'

'Inuzuka Kiba of Team 8'

'Hyuuga Hinata of Team 8'

The Kumo nin glanced at one another, before Killer Bee decided to set the example.

'Killer B, Jounin leader of Team 3'

'Nii Yugito, of Team 3'

'Omoi of Team 3'

'Karui of Team 3'

'Samui of Team 3'

'Well, now dat we all know others, how bout we go spar and see how we stand with our shinobi brothers and sisters?' B managed to create a clear meaning in his sentence while rapping, although the fact that he was rapping in the first place annoyed the hell out of everyone. Kanako sighed, but agreed that it was necessary to be able to formulate a plan properly, even if she would have liked to try and keep some of their abilities secret.

Several minutes later in a rather large clearing in the middle of the forest, and away from prying eyes, the shinobi gathered to debate who should spar who in the opposing teams.

'Perhaps we should have free-for all spar between 1 person from each team?' Kanako suggested, getting annoyed at the arguments some of the genin were putting up about wanting to fight certain people.

'But my team has extra, who gonna fight her?' Killer B rapped as he pointed at Yugito.

'I am sure that Naruto will be happy to fight two rounds, am I right Naruto?' Kurenai asked, only to receive no response. All three Jounin turned to see Naruto casually reading a book as Kiba was trying to shake him out of it. Kurenai immediately turned to Kanako and said:

'He was infected! I knew it would happen if he started to hang around you too long!'

'Naruto!' Kanako called, breaking him out of the trance he had entered, and repeated the question

'Yeah, sure why not? It should be fun,' Naruto shrugged before going back to reading.

All of the Jounin rolled their eyes, although B finally got a sense of how annoying his rapping was; he shrugged mentally, he didn't care.

'Kiba, Karui and Ino,' Kanako called the three forward from the rest gathered at one side of the clearing.

'Alright, this is just a spar, we want no long term injuries or deaths, if you're in a position where it's do something dangerous, die, or quit, just quit, it makes things easier without people having to waste medical supplies because of your stupidity,' Kanako outlined briefly before bringing her hand down with a cry of 'Hajime' and starting the spar.

Ino considered the other two briefly before moving quickly, using a shunshin with one hand seal, impressing the Kumo team along with Kurenai's team. Now out of immediate sight of the other two, Ino considered her plan of attack.

Back out in the open, Kiba was desperately trying to avoid being hit by Karui's bokken, as all blades had been replaced by them in order not to injure anyone, although everyone had agreed that if they were hit in a kill point by one, they must immediately quit.

Backing up quickly Kiba called out the name of his technique as Akamaru readied himself beside him.

'Fang Passing Fang'

Karui's eyes widened as she saw the two human-sized drills speeding towards her, and ducked at the last second, collapsing to the ground, the drills just missing her by inches. Kiba pulled out of the technique just as he was about to crash into the trees ahead of him. He turned to repeat the maneuver, only to find Karui immediately in front of him with her bokken pointing towards his heart. Kiba understood that he had lost, moving out of the way to watch the remainder of the match.

Ino was watching from above, as she had walked up a nearby tree while Kiba and Karui were occupied with fighting each other. Seeing that Kiba was out, she sent a clone to distract Karui momentarily. As Karui turned to face the incoming clone, she didn't notice that it was just an illusion, as it wasn't touching the ground. As she did so, Ino dropped from the branches over hanging the clearing behind Karui and tapped a pressure point in her neck, knocking her out smoothly. Over in the group of spectators, Kakano smiled, Ino had just won without revealing any of her techniques other than the one hand seal shunshin, which was often disregarded as being ineffective by combat ninja. Kurenai and Killer B had just come to the same conclusion, realizing that this girl, and in essence Kanako's entire team, hated revealing their abilities unnecessarily.

'Shino, Samui and Naruto, same deal as last time, no maiming or killing, don't do unnecessary damage,' Kurenai said in an attempt to sound interested.

'Hajime!'

Both Shino and Samui looked at one another before nodding and turning to face Naruto, who ever so slowly withdrew his bokken version of his ninjato, and holding it in one hand, began to do hand seals with the other. Everyone was shocked that he was able to do so, even Kanako and Sai, as it had just been a recent project of his. He called forth water that proceeded to surround his hand, making the eyes of everyone widen further still; Naruto had just called forth water from the air, which only the Nidaime Hokage was recorded of doing, and showed extreme control over it by wrapping around a limb without it losing its form. Samui and Shino charged in immediately determined to try and force Naruto out before he could get started. Unfortunately they were playing right into Naruto's hands; as when Samui tried to engage him a Taijutsu fight in order to cramp him from using his bokken, he used the water that had been wrapped around his hand to douse her in water. Samui cursed, as this meant she wouldn't be able to use any of her lightning Ninjutsu without knocking herself out of the competition. Shino retreated somewhat, before sending a wave Kikaichu towards Naruto. Seeing this Naruto gathered Wind chakra around his hand to the point where it was almost visible before slamming his fist into the ground and releasing his wind chakra as he hit. The result was a massive amount of the Kikaichu being launched into the air.

'Uzumaki-san, you have just given me an advantage, as all of my Kikaichu have the ability to fly,' Shino said briefly before telling his Kikaichu to attack. Naruto was only able to think of one technique that he could use to deter Shino without killing many of the Aburame's Kikaichu.

'Hurricane Style: Hurricane Sphere'

Naruto created a sphere surrounding himself, comprising of layers of Lightning, Water, and Wind.

'I suggest you forfeit Shino as none of your Kikaichu will be able to pierce this sphere without being fried, drowned and cut to pieces, and I do not want to weaken you for the battle ahead.' Naruto said, as he had worked out his personal Ultimate Defense technique

Shino paused; receiving messages from his Kikaichu telling that what Naruto said was correct. He thought silently for a few moments more, considering actions he could take and their outcomes, before he bowed his head and left the field. Naruto then deactivated his Hurricane Sphere before turning to Samui.

'As you are unable to use Lightning Ninjutsu, which is typically the primary elemental affinity type for those from Kumo, shall we make this a Taijutsu match?' Naruto asked, smiling grimly.

'And who said that Lightning is my only elemental affinity?' Samui had a sudden grin on her face before announcing:

'Water Style: Water Bullets' She spat six high powered bullets at Naruto who, seeing the hand sign chain and guessing the technique, was already performing a counter-technique.

'Earth Style: Earth Rock Wall' Samui just watched silently as her water bullets hit the earth wall ineffectively. As the wall collapsed after it had been used, Samui eyed Naruto.

'Just how many elemental affinities do you have?' She couldn't help but ask with slight exasperation

'Four, why?' Naruto was oblivious to the sense of shock rising up from the Kumo ninja.

'Never mind, it's just not cool to face a guy with four affinities,' Samui sighed before moving in for Taijutsu.

As she tried to get beneath Naruto guard, she could sense that Naruto was coddling her in allowing her to try and hit him.

Naruto eventually got bored of the light exercise and struck a pair of pressure points on Samui's arms, rendering them useless. Samui then moved to try and kick the living daylights out of Naruto before he knocked her out.

_"Talk about bloody troublesome,"_ he thought, _"you immobilize her arms, and so she immediately tries to kick you instead."_ He then picked up the unconscious Samui and carried her over to the watching group.

'Was it really necessary to toy with them Naruto?' Kakano asked in slight exasperation, she had expected the third spar to be well underway by now.

'I was bored,' Naruto said briefly before he pulled his book back out and continued reading. Yugito tried to look at what he was reading and found that it wasn't Icha Icha, but instead it was a manual on sword crafting, of all things.

The third round went as expected, with Hinata, due to her overly gentle and hesitant nature, being dealt with quickly by Omoi, but not before dealing some damage to him in the form of closing the tenkutsus of his left arm. Sai then repeated what Ino had done, excepting he drew endless Ink animals, forcing Omoi to try and cut them down one by one, as Lightning didn't seem to have much effect. Eventually Sai was unable to keep up the pace he had formerly shown with his drawing, and Omoi forced him into a Kenjutsu fight, with Sai using his tanto against Omoi's katana. Although Omoi had the advantage of reach, it was effectively nullified once Sai began showing amazing displays of acrobatics in orders to get close in, even flipping over Omoi himself several times. The two bokken started to crack under the constant impact of the two fighting. Eventually it ended in a rather spectacular finish as Sai used his chakra to stick one of his hands on the side of Omoi's bokken and when Omoi drew back for a downward slash, released it, allowing Sai to get directly behind him and poise his bokken at Omoi's jugular.

The Kumo shinobi were rather depressed at this, as although each of them had beaten the Konoha genin from Kurenai's team, none of them had beaten any from Kanako's team. Although Karui was feeling the worst, as Samui and Omoi had lost to genin who were in the Bingo Book, while she had just lost to a normal genin.

By this stage Yugito was almost feeling jittery, and she wasn't exactly sure why, as she knew that Naruto wouldn't kill her, from what she had seen from his match against Samui. She just put it up to nerves.

**"Oh please Kitten, it's because you're excited to be fighting him, after from what I have seen from your reactions, you like him,"** Matatabi put her thoughts in helpfully.

_"I do not like him; he is from Konoha, it wouldn't work,"_ Yugito thought back.

**"You sound like you have actually considered it, and I can see why,"** Matatabi responded, before sending Yugito mental images of her in front of a huge viewing screen watching Yugito's memories of Naruto. Yugito growled mentally, before blocking out Matatabi's voice to concentrate on the spar at hand.

Naruto watched as various emotions ranging from denial to possessive want crossed Yugito's face, cementing his suspicion that she was a Jinchuuriki. The odd chakra he had felt when he used his sensor abilities had been what initially made him suspect her, and even though Kyare had said that it was unlikely that a Jinchuuriki could have such good control over their Bijuu's chakra, he had continued to suspect. Now that his suspicion was cemented he was also sure that Killer B was a Jinchuuriki as well, although that was openly suggested due to the Ox tattoo on his shoulder. He guessed that due to his Senju heritage they didn't know the same about him, so he made sure not to use Kyare's chakra. Although he had to put it out there, that look of possessive want that had crossed Yugito's face earlier had scared him; it was a mildly more controlled version of the same face that children make when they have something they absolutely want to play with. It scared even more that she had been looking directly at him when that look crossed his face.

Naruto shivered; he just had a feeling that no matter what he did, Yugito getting her way would be unavoidable.

Kanako watched in amusement as the two regarded each other, as did Kurenai and Killer B; the two were acting in a way no one had ever seen before; they were being skittish. Kanako ever so slowly bought a video camera out of her back pocket, she could use this so many things: blackmail, embarrassing Naruto, telling her friends and having the evidence to back it up. Killer B and Kurenai, having caught on to what she was doing, came over and they all huddled in a group over the soon-to-be recording of Naruto's embarrassment.

The two watched each other for the first minutes of their spar, waiting for the other person to make the first move, although Yugito was trying to block out Matatabi's suggestions. Eventually deciding that moving towards Naruto and into combat might me the only way to get Matatabi to shut up, Yugito moved first.

_"She is surprisingly fast for a supposed genin, it seems that Konoha isn't the only one that applies advanced training for those in unusual circumstances,"_ Naruto thought as he blocked Yugito's Taijutsu attacks.

Yugito seeing that she wasn't getting anywhere with her Taijutsu, retreated before preparing what seemed to be a Fire style technique.

'Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!' To Naruto's shock it seemed to be hotter and much larger than the average grand fireball jutsu.

_"Must be a side effect of being a demon container for a certain demon,"_ Naruto concluded as he shunshined out of the fireball's path. As he watched it hit the trees behind where he had been standing, he added another thought to that statement:

_"I am so glad Sasuke isn't here, he would be seething with jealousy, might even start a war over it." _

Naruto ducked under the bokken that was swung by Yugito and he moved behind her in an attempt to knock her out with the pommel of his own. It didn't work, as Yugito did the strangest thing one could do in the middle a spar; she collapsed into Naruto, causing him to miss and the two of them to fall over with Yugito on top.

Everyone's eyes grew wide, apart from Samui and Karui, who knew what Yugito was doing. Kanako giggled perversely as she caught it on camera.

Naruto quickly set down Yugito on the grass gently, before attempting to wake her up; he thought that she had collapsed from stress or something. Then he realized what she was attempting and quickly backed off before she could try anything.

'Yugito, what the hell are you trying to do?'

'Dammit,' Yugito cursed softly before shunshining out of sight. Naruto activated his chakra wings again; he didn't want to sense where Yugito was as this was turning out to be a rather enjoyable match. That's what the three Jounin watching thought as well.

Naruto's eyes widened as two grand fireballs streaked towards him from two opposite directions, and he was in the middle. Kurenai's team panicked when he didn't move as the fireballs got closer and closer to him. Naruto's wings just curled around him and transparent chakra appeared in the places they didn't cover. The flames impacted before slowly dying down. Naruto was standing exactly as he had been, with what looked to be a shell of protective chakra around him, flaring gold from the heat of the two fireballs. He then released the chakra, apart from that which kept his wings and said quietly:

'You should remember Yugito that I am a sensor ninja, you can't hide from me.'

Yugito had just processed these words, knowing that she would have to come out and fight, when the pommel of Naruto's bokken impacted with her temple and knocked her out. The Naruto that was in the clearing then move underneath the branch she had been squatting on and caught her before she could impact with the ground. He then ordered his shadow clone to dispel, before carrying over Yugito's unconscious body to the crowd of spectators.

It was only after Naruto had handed over Yugito to Samui that he caught sight of the thing that Kanako was hurriedly trying to hide within one of the pockets of her vest.

It was a portable video camera.

'Nee-chan, what is that you're trying to hide in your vest?' Naruto asked in an overly sweet, but icy calm tone.

It's nothing, I forgot to bring batteries for it,' Kanako shuddered. Naruto knew there were no batteries within Kanako's supplies as he had checked them before they left Konoha. He hadn't checked Kanako's vest though.

'Good,' Naruto said in the same tone before walking off.

"Yes!" All three Jounins thought simultaneously, mentally fist-pumping at the thought of such useful blackmail material. (Kanako had made an agreement with Killer B that they would share such material in order to embarrass each other's students)

It had been two days since the spars between the teams, and both Kurenai's team and the Kumo had been training like crazy. Everyone had agreed that they would have a similar sort of spar before they went home, although the event everyone was keen for was the Chunin Exams, as everyone had agreed to compete.

Naruto and Sai were currently the ones guarding Tazuna as he continued construction of the bridge.

'Tazuna!' One of the workers came over, looking rather anxious.

'What is it Yaro?' Tazuna had taken notice of his nervous state.

'I don't think I will be able to work on the bridge any longer,' Yaro said hesitantly. This caught Naruto's attention from where he was sitting over to one side.

'What? But we agreed that we would finish this bridge no matter what it took,' Tazuna was shocked at the sudden resignation of one of his most faithful workers.

'But Gato will kill us for it! Is this act of defiance worth our lives?' Yaro objected.

'I will not be cowed by Gato!' Tazuna turned to the rest of the workers, 'Lunch break! As for you Yaro, you can take off for the next shift.'

As the workers were eating lunch, Sai approached Naruto.

'The man sure is losing a lot of workers fast, that's been two this morning,' Sai said. Naruto knew what he was hinting at, he sighed.

'I'll approach him after the lunch break is over about using my shadow clones,' Naruto said. And indeed 15 minutes later, just after Tazuna had ordered the workers back to their stations.

'You seem to be losing a lot of workers Tazuna,' Naruto said, working him into the subject.

'Yeah, well not many are willing to risk the lives of what families they have especially if there are women or children in those families,' Tazuna knew the reasons why so many had quit.

'What would your reaction be if I said I was able to fix the problem and give you all the workers you need?'

'I would beg you on my hands and knees if necessary to get you to do so,' Tazuna obviously thought that Naruto was joking

'That won't be necessary, Mass Shadow Clone Technique!' A wall of smoke appeared in front of the two, obscuring their view of the workers. And as the smoke cleared, Tazuna's jaw fell open at the sight of 75 clones of Naruto staring back at him.

'Alright, follow whatever Tazuna tells you to do, okay?' Naruto said to his clones

'Sure boss!' They chanted back. Tazuna grinned.

'Alright, we need teams carrying materials from over at the supply station to the bridge. We also need teams at the supply station cutting bricks from the stone there, that sort of thing. Is it possible to get a team under the bridge looking for cracks?' Tazuna voice faded away as Naruto walked back to where he had been sitting before.

That Night, Tazuna's House

Tazuna was talking with Kanako about what had happened this morning over dinner.

'He created a small army of workers for me to work with! If he can continue doing so, I could have that bridge finished in 3-4 weeks instead of something like two months. Although with Gato out of the way it will be a lot easier, as a lot more people will join in.'

Killer B and Yugito shared a glance when they heard of Naruto's feat; there were very few people with such a large amount of chakra to be able to do something like that, and first amongst that category were Jinchuurikis. Naruto and Sai saw the glance and knew that Naruto would be confronted by the two soon.

'Why don't you leave? You're all going to die anyway!' Inari, Tsunami's son said loudly from the far end of the table.

'Because Gato couldn't kill us if he tried,' Naruto said in a low voice in the sudden silence.

'Gato will kill you all! You aren't able to stop him! You don't know how hard life has been for the people in this village! You don't know how difficult life can be!' Inari shouted.

Naruto, Killer B, and Yugito stiffened. Kanako's, Kurenai's and Sai's eyes all widened at the audacity of this kid. Naruto leaned towards Inari before growling in a grating tone:

'You have no idea what pain is.' He then stood up silently, put his hood over his head, obscuring most of his face before opening the door and walking out of the house, ignoring the cries of Hinata and Ino. Kanako turned to Inari.

'Never say that Naruto doesn't know pain. He grew up with no one there to help him; he was hated by every person in our village, apart from 7 or 8 who couldn't help him. For the first 8 years of his life he was beaten by huge mobs that tried to kill him or drive him insane, whichever came first. At the age of 4 he was literally thrown out of the orphanage from the top story, and after that he lived off the streets for two years before the Hokage was able to track him down. Several times he was pronounced clinically dead by doctors in the hospital, causing the villagers to start celebrating before he came back to life. Even in the hospital people tried to kill him, to the point where only 2 or 3 doctors could be trusted to look after him. By the time he was 5 he had survived over 800 assassination attempts on his life. In the end he developed multiple personalities to try and deal with it. Thankfully over the years he has been able to recover although he still shows hints of those personalities when he gets angry or sad,' Kanako said by way of an explanation as to why Naruto was angered by the suggestion that he didn't know pain.

Killer B and Yugito looked at one another again, this time it was certain; Naruto was a Jinchuuriki, as only Jinchuurikis are treated with so much hate.

During the silence that pervaded of the table, they could all hear the sounds of a violin in the night. Kanako sighed again

'When he gets sad, Naruto tends to either disappear for a while, or retreat to the highest place available and play his violin,' Kakano said as she looked up at the ceiling.

Naruto sighed heavily as he played the final note on his violin; he knew that he would be slightly slow in the morning; he was just wearing just his shirt, leaving his vest in the house when he walked out. And it was late in the night, perhaps even early morning. He resealed his violin before creeping silently off the roof of Tazuna's house. It wouldn't do to worry his friends unnecessarily.

The next morning dawned with frost covering the ground and Yugito awoke groggily before grumbling slightly and turning over in her sleeping bag, reluctant to leave the heat surrounding her. Eventually giving up on her getting back to sleep, Yugito instead thought upon the most recent subject on her mind: Naruto. He seemed to be very strong, as Killer B had commented that even he was unsure he would be able to beat Naruto; and Killer B was the strongest person she knew, apart from perhaps the Raikage. He also seemed to be emotionally conflicted due to his past as a Jinchuuriki, although his seemed to be extreme compared to even B's. However he also seemed to be a very kind person, perhaps too much so, Yugito reflected, thinking back to their spar when he almost fell for her trick. It was unusual; one would expect someone with such a past to be cold and closed off to other people, considering the mission before their friends. Yugito's eyes widened when she realized that Samui was awake and watching her silently, almost as if she knew what Yugito was thinking. However both their attention was caught when they saw that B's sleeping bag was empty. They awoke Omoi and Karui and strapped their equipment on hurriedly; it was odd for B not to notify them when he left, so they were worried.

Naruto and B were silent as they created a mindscape connection between their two as the two had agreed that B and Gyuki, The Eight Tails, would teach Kyare how to fully be able to help Naruto with her chakra. But in exchange Naruto would have to show B memories of his past, before he began his training with his nee-chans and nii-sans, along with promise that he would sometime come to Kumo in order to fully train with Kyare to control her power, as she could only do so much. Naruto had readily agreed, as due to his Uzumaki chakra he had an estimated lifespan of around 150 years, although his was more like 200 due to also being Kyare's Jinchuuriki. As they connected their mindscapes, both ninja felt their eyelids being dragged down.

A few minutes later Yugito, Samui, Karui and Omoi came upon the scene of the two looking like they were sleeping with their right hands on the forehead of the other. Immediately Karui stormed to towards the two, determined to stop Naruto from whatever he was doing, before Yugito stopped her from interfering.

'Leave them, we shouldn't interrupt. Instead we should watch over the two and make sure others do not interrupt,' Yugito said authoritavely.

'But he is obviously doing something to B-sensei,' Karui objected, surprised that Yugito had stopped her.

'No, B-sensei chose to initiate this, as he is the only person able to do such a thing. He did the same for me when I was younger,' Yugito explained after she sat down on a nearby log.

'Surely you don't mean that?' Samui asked uncertainly, as it seemed that Yugito was suggesting that Naruto was a Jinchuuriki. Although that would explain how he could keep throwing out high-level jutsus long after most would have collapsed.

'We have our theories but we can't confirm them; it may simply be because he's an Uzumaki.

Within the Mindscape Connection

Naruto whistled softly as he looked around within the connection, the setting seemed to be a place in the Land of Lightning, due to the mountains and valleys, with mountains going off into the distance.

'Sorry if it seems a bit unfamiliar,' Naruto turned to see two men, one was B and the other was obviously the Eight Tails, due to his appearance. 'Our mind unconsciously selected this place, as this is where we spend most of our time. It was only by becoming a Jounin sensei that we were able to actually leave Kumo, and even then rarely,' B explained patiently, as although he understood his brother's reasons, it did get very boring.

'Right,' Naruto said briefly before turning to the Eight Tails, 'It is a pleasure to meet another of the Bijuu, being as misunderstood as they are.'

'I shall say the same, Uzumaki Naruto, as I can tell that you are descended from the blood of my father, you have the same bearing, although you are an Uzumaki,' Gyuki said courteously, confusing both B and Naruto.

'What do you mean, "descended from your father"?' Naruto asked curiously.

'I thought that she would have told you,' Gyuki said, pointing past Naruto, 'although I do not recognize the second woman.' All three of them turned to see Kyare and Kushina, who were walking towards them at as steady pace.

'It has been a very long time since I last saw you Kyare-nee-chan,' Gyuki said rather jovially.

'Indeed it has, otouto. How has it been in the Land of Lightning; I haven't visited in a while,' Kyare seemed almost uncertain, although that may have been because of the questioning glare being sent her way by Naruto.

'What does Gyuki mean, "the blood of his father"?' Naruto repeated the question to Kyare, who winced before shooting a slight glare at the human form of the Eight Tails and sighing.

'Naruto, his father and the father of all the Bijuu, was a person known to you humans as the Rikudou Sennin. Although he had us as his children essentially at the end of his life, he had three male human children before then. We were different because we were created from the chakra of the Juubi, while his former children were normal, but each inhering specific traits from him. However at the end of his life he had to choose an heir from one of his three sons. But at the time he was delirious, so he passed the duty on to his eldest; which was, unfortunately, me. So it became my duty to watch over the families of the three sons and judge which is worthy to be proclaimed the heirs of the Rikudou Sennin himself. The three sons were very different on their outlooks in life; the eldest liked a life of prestige, but helped others to the point where it became renown. The second son loved a life of both prestige and combat, although soon his arrogance reigned over both his desires. The youngest son however, instead was more adventurous, gathering whatever knowledge he could, and decided that he would use it for good or ill, depending on the circumstances of the time. As you may have guessed, these three sons of the Rikudou Sennin were the forefathers of the Senju, Uchiha and Uzumaki clans respectively. Each was granted a physical trait of their father; Senju gaining the body, Uchiha gaining a version of the eye, as the man had deemed it to dangerous for them to wield, and the Uzumaki gaining the thirst for knowledge and longevity of life. After that the three brothers split up, each searching for their own goal, and eventually founded clans across the Elemental Nations. However the Uchiha, still remembering that his father had given him a weaker version of his trait, renounced family bonds and raised his clan to be the rival of the Senju, as he disregarded the Uzumaki to be nothing more than old wise-men who would prove easy to kill. Thus both the Senju and Uchiha clans forgot their brotherly connections and fought on many a battlefield. Meanwhile the Uzumaki focused more on themselves, creating the first hidden village in Uzushiogakure and using their knowledge to slowly train themselves in the shinobi arts, gaining an understanding of chakra that rivaled that of the Rikudou Sennin. As such the bonds that held two of the clans together fragmented, while the bonds of the Senju and Uzumaki weakened, as the Uzumaki just watched as the Uchiha attacked. Thus they grew, with the Uchiha perfecting versions of Ninjutsu and Taijutsu but also relying heavily on their Sharingans; while the Senju focused more on Ninjutsu, Medical Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, although their Taijutsu rivaled that of the Uchiha. The Uzumaki however took a different path, taking the arts of Fuuinjutsu and Kenjutsu beyond what the others thought possible, being able to beat both of the former clans greatest abilities easily. As such both the Senju and Uchiha left the Uzumaki relatively alone, knowing that to attempt war was foolish, especially as they were fighting each other,' Kyare said, losing B, Kushina and especially Naruto. 'As to who this is Gyuki,' She continued, motioning to Kushina, 'this is Naruto mother.'

'Well it seems the abilities of the Uzumaki have not fallen, if they are able to seal a person into another,' Gyuki said, unknowing of the loss of Uzushio.

'Perhaps not, but Naruto is the only known Uzumaki left alive. The rest fell fighting Iwa and Kumo when they invaded. They were overwhelmed by sheer numbers,' Kushina said, having returned to the conversation once Gyuki spoke.

'So it seems that the numbers of the three clans have been scoured. The sword that existed now lies shattered and peace has been lost to the world. After the Senju and Uchiha killed each other off, only the Uzumaki were left to restore peace to the world, but it seems they were destroyed as well,' Gyuki said, eyes dulling slightly.

'All is not lost, as the containers of the recent generation have much promise, judging from what I have seen from B and Yugito, along with Naruto,' Kyare said, grasping his shoulder.

'Alas, we are the lucky ones. B's brother, A, occasionally receives reports which include the status of the other Jinchuuriki. Isobu went missing after his container was killed at the conclusion of the recent bloodline purge. We know that Son Goku and Kokuo are held by Iwa, and that their Jinchuurikis are treated like outcasts by the village, so they spend a large amount of their time outside of its walls. Saiken's Jinchuuriki recently became a missing-nin after leaving Kiri at the height of the purge, and Chomei's Jinchuuriki, although not liked by her village of Takigakure, still retains an attitude similar to that of Naruto's mask. But it is likely that once again it is a mask of her true feelings. The most startling reports are that of Shukaku's Jinchuuriki, as it seems that Shukaku himself has drastically changed. They say that Shukaku tortures his container, never allowing him to sleep and constantly demanding that blood be spilled. The container itself is being raised as a weapon, and is feared by his own family,' Gyuki said, his voice never changing in pitch.

'Well it seems that it is time for the Jinchuuriki and the Bijuu to gather once more, for to combat Kurei we will need all of the Jinchuuriki to work together, or we shall be picked off one by one,' Kyare gained a fire in her eyes as she looked at Gyuki's fallen hope.

B, as Naruto and I are unable to do much on our end, would you be able to keep tabs on the Jinchuuriki?' Kyare asked, turning to the quiet man.

'Sure, Gyuki and I shall handle that, although Shukaku's container seems to be scheduled to attend the Chunin Exams in Konoha in a few months time,' B outlined, knowing that this was not the time to rap.

'Good, then that means that Naruto and I will be able to see if we can fix whatever seems to have changed with Shukaku,' Kyare sensed that the time would be coming soon: The time where the choices they made would decide the fate of the Elemental Nations.

The two of them woke from their connection, after discussing several other matters with Kyare and Gyuki, who seemed to hearten upon hearing of his older sister's plan. It had been far too long since he had seen the others.

Naruto and B saw that the Kumo team had watched over the two of them as they had talked with their Bijuu, and as he sat up slowly, he knew that it was likely they suspected he was a Jinchuuriki, but he also knew that until he stated it, they wouldn't press it. That was one thing he liked about the Kumo shinobi; they weren't as pushy as several Konoha shinobi were.


	5. Chapter 5: Battle and Aoi

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Fruits Basket

It had been 7 days since the meeting between Gyuki and Kyare, and everyone was tense; they were expecting Zabuza to be back today, only this time they would be fighting several others as well. Naruto, remembering the information that Ino had gained from mind-walking the now dead Demon Brothers, had claimed that if Aoi Rokusho showed up, then he was his to kill, but in doing so he would have to leave his friends to face the others for at least a short amount of time. Naruto was also considering making a proposition to Zabuza after he was done with the Konoha traitor; that of recruiting Zabuza and Haku into Konoha, which would allow them to go about their business without fear of Kiri's Hunter-nins. However it would depend on the personalities of both of the former Kiri shinobi.

As the large group of Konoha and Kumo nin set off towards the bridge with Tazuna, they left behind a group of shadow clones and lightning clones to guard Tazuna's family while they were guarding him. Never know how far Gato will stoop, although he had already stooped far enough.

As the large group approached the end of the bridge connected to Wave, everybody tensed as they saw the mist hanging over the worksite in the middle of the bridge, obscuring their view of the workers.

Naruto and Kanako figured that this was Zabuza's jutsu due to the chakra lacing the mist, and Naruto stepped forward before using a high-level wind jutsu to dissipate the mist.

Six figures were revealed; one obviously being Zabuza, due to his massive zanbatou over his shoulder, and another being Aoi, due to the sparking sword that seemed to be made of lightning in his hand. As the two groups of shinobi walked towards each other, Kurenai told Tazuna to stay back, and assigned her team to watch over him.

'So it seems that we have a chance to fight once more, Konoha's Deathly Angel,' Zabuza said in a scathing tone as he looked at Naruto.

_"Well, his attitude is pointing at him not accompanying us to Konoha,"_ Naruto thought grimly.

'Be that as it may Zabuza, but I shall have to have my fight with Aoi Rokusho over there before we do,' Naruto said, motioning with his head to the thief of the Raijin no Ken.

'And why are you interested in battling me, brat? Are you foolish enough to think you can beat the wielder of the Raijin no Ken, the lightning sword of the Nidaime Hokage?' Aoi asked arrogantly, thinking that once the brat heard of the swords past he would back off.

'I will kill you for taking the property of the Senju clan, which is related to mine own,' Naruto said, voice chilling quickly as he narrowed his eyes dangerously. The Konoha ninja, especially those from Team 7 and the two Jounin, knew that when Naruto was acting like this, he was officially pissed.

'Well, I insist that we fight before you take him on,' Zabuza was not happy at being disregarded for someone as arrogant as Aoi.

'If you insist, then I shall take you both on, as I will not let that thief escape. His life is forfeit,' Naruto said, glaring at the two of them.

_"Bloody missing-nin making my life more difficult due to their stubborn pride,"_ Naruto thought, rather irritated that Aoi wasn't dead yet.

As Naruto, Zabuza and Aoi were arguing over the order of their fights, the Kumo team and Team 7 had spread themselves in front of the other missing-nin, each choosing their own combatant. Kurenai, Kakano and B stayed back; ready to help the genin if necessary but also saving their energy in case it was needed later. Hearing Naruto's proclamation about taking on both Zabuza and Aoi, everyone looked over at the boy, shocked that he first challenged Aoi to their battle, but now he was taking both of them? Who in their right mind disadvantages themselves when faced with two A-ranked missing-nin? Well, Naruto does.

As Naruto, Zabuza and Aoi began to stare at one another, Aoi began to wonder why Zabuza had not activated his Hidden Mist Jutsu yet. As he turned towards Zabuza slightly in order to ask that very question, Zabuza answered:

'Doesn't work, tried it already, but the brat is a sensor, and a very good one at that he could tell when I was making a water clone while in the mist.'

Slightly unsettled by this information, Aoi turned back to Naruto, who had drawn his twin ninjatos and was beginning to form his two wings behind him. The Sandaime Hokage and Naruto had realized that Naruto did it almost subconsciously in a fight, and on many missions while his clone was at the academy, Naruto had to wear seals in order to stop it from happening, in order to stop other villages identifying him as Konoha's Deathly Angel.

Aoi and Zabuza looked on as Naruto directed small amounts of his chakra to the seals on the blades of his ninjatos. All of a sudden the right one seemed to gain a field of lightning around it while the left did the same with wind, as one could see tiny bladed shapes whirling around the blade. When Zabuza saw this his eyes widened; if a person took a full on hit from that blade it would cut its way though their body, as the small blades of Wind would grind away at an opponent's flesh, just at high speed. Meanwhile Aoi dismissed the two elementally covered swords, thinking that they were but a pale imitation of the Raijin no Ken, and as such, were incomparable in terms of sheer power.

Naruto watched as the two missing-nin drew their blades; Zabuza with his Kubikiribōchō, and Aoi with the Raijin no Ken. He noted that even though Zabuza was treating him warily, Aoi was completely and utterly relaxed, as he had come to rely on the blade of the Nidaime too much. Although it hadn't failed him yet, his arrogance allowed him to think it would never do so, and that would give Naruto a huge advantage. Knowing that it was time to stop stalling, Naruto disabled his weights and resistance seals and shot forward.

Next millisecond, Naruto had had both of his attacks blocked by the blades of the two missing-nins, he grinned quickly before disappearing in a blur of speed. Zabuza swore, Naruto hadn't been that fast before, and he had barely held out against him then, although he had only survived due to Haku's intervention.

He swore louder.

With Yugito and Sai

Yugito and Sai had decided to team up with each other and take on Zabuza's accomplice, although Sai was intending to put forward Naruto proposition after he had defeated her. Yugito had just teamed up with him as she knew that the remainder of her team and Ino would be able to handle the missing-nin from Ame.

'I hope that you can cover being a close quarters fighter,' Sai said as he turned to Yugito.

'Don't worry about that,' Yugito replied, still looking at the 'girl' that was facing them. In response Sai said nothing, just took out an art book and started to mold chakra in order to bring his drawings to life.

Haku watched as various creatures of what seemed to be ink raced towards her. In response she summoned a huge amount of Ice senbon from the river running below them and shredded the creatures with extreme prejudice.

Yugito cursed, this may be harder than they thought if she had an Ice bloodline. Sai looked unsurprised, but instead more determined, as he could see that Zabuza regarded 'her' as a tool.

_"This may be my chance to do for another person what Naruto did for me all those years ago,"_ Sai thought determinedly.

With Ino and the Kumo team

Ino watched as she and the Kumo team spread themselves out in a line facing the three Ame missing-nin. Samui and Omoi had chosen their own targets; the oldest, a girl, and a person who looked to be little more than a boy, but if he was a missing-nin then it was likely he had a trick up his sleeve. Meanwhile she and Karui had silently agreed to work together to take down the last opponent, a tall male teenager, who looked rather haunted.

As she watched Karui streak towards their opponent in order to engage him in Kenjutsu, she sensed that Samui and Omoi were doing the same. Ino smiled slightly before shunshining behind the missing-nins.

Karui brought up her katana in order to try a downward strike at the silent teen, but at the very last second it seemed that the teen had brought a kunai up and blocked the strike. His seemingly dead green eyes gazed into Karui's golden ones, shocking her. She brought back her katana for another strike, which was again blocked by the teen's kunai. Realizing that just using her katana was getting her nowhere and simply tiring her out, Karui retreated slightly before channeling lightning chakra to her blade. She then moved back in to attack the teen in Kenjutsu once more. However before she could do so the teen faded from her sight.

"Genjutsu," Karui thought worriedly; she never really bothered with Genjutsu. However before she could focus her chakra and disrupt the Genjutsu she felt the impact of a kunai to her temple, and everything went dark.

Over in their fights Omoi and his opponent were at a standstill, as both seemed equal in their Kenjutsu, while Samui had gained a clear advantage over her enemy, having cut through the tendons in her left arm. Meanwhile Ino was considering how to defeat her opponent now that Karui was clearly out of action. Thankfully, having three ANBU level or higher teachers meant that she was pretty capable in all areas that she used.

With the Jounin-Senseis

All three of the Jounin-senseis watched the fights in front of them; Naruto was doing well against the two A-rank missing-nin, it was the other two fights that they were worried about. As such Kakano was left to make sure Naruto wasn't harmed too badly, while B watched over Yugito and Sai, while Kurenai watched Ino and the remains of the Kumo team. Kurenai collected the now unconscious Karui off the field as Ino moved in to combat the tall missing-nin, and prepared herself to intervene should Ino prove to be losing. She was more concerned about Ino as Samui seemed to be taking care of herself, and Omoi had his opponent on the defensive. Although she did raise an eyebrow when she saw Ino focus chakra to what looked to be a seal on her wrist and grab the chokuto that had appeared.

With Naruto

Naruto winced as Aoi prepared to try and stop his movement with the Raijin no Ken; you think the idiot would have learned by now. Naruto had spent the last few minutes running circles around the two swordsmen, and eventually Aoi had got annoyed and relied on the Raijin no Ken to try had stop him. It hadn't worked, and Naruto was still winning; both Zabuza and Aoi bore various scuffmarks and cuts, while Naruto had none.

Seeing a chance to finally end Aoi as he turned the wrong way, Naruto ran up behind him, little more than a blur, and kicked Aoi's knees from behind. And as Aoi fell backward slightly Naruto used one of his ninjato and separated the traitor's head from his body. Zabuza watched on as Naruto gathered the Nidaime Hokage's blade and Aoi's head and sealed them away within a sealing scroll, before readying himself as Naruto turned to him. Naruto looked at Zabuza evenly.

'Zabuza, I would like to make you a proposition,' Naruto said

'Why on earth would you make me a proposition, when we both know you can easily kill me and take my blade?' Zabuza asked, grudgingly admitting that Naruto was superior.

'I am not interested in Kubikiribōchō, instead my offer is to recruit both you and your accomplice, Haku into Konoha, as Haku is not the last of his clan and has family there,' Naruto said, slightly angry by the fact that Zabuza considered his sword over his accomplice.

'Why would your Kage want either of us? It would bring nothing more than trouble for Konoha and Haku would be treated as little more than a breeding machine for your power hungry civilians. In fact, how the hell do you even know of Haku, as you have never met him apart from that small encounter where he acted as the hunter-nin,' Zabuza refuted.

'One of our number is a Yamanaka, who retrieved the information from the Demon Brothers before they died,' Naruto said shortly liking this man less and less.

'But you would rid me of my weapon if he accompanied you to Konoha,' Zabuza said, finally stating that he saw Haku as nothing more than a weapon. Naruto didn't respond, blurring behind Zabuza.

'If you won't allow me to take him, then I shall ask him myself,' Naruto said harshly into the missing-nins ear.

'You will have to kill me before I allow you near him,' Zabuza said, turning, with his blade sweeping around.

'And you can't stop me from doing so,' Naruto said ninjatos at the ready.

'Ah, but you aren't the only one wearing chakra weights,' Zabuza said, and with a burst of chakra, released them.

Naruto and Zabuza reengaged with blurs of speed, causing sparks to fly from their colliding blades.

With Sai and Yugito 

Yugito cursed.

_"If there is one thing I can say about this girl,"_ she thought frustrated, _"its that her use of Ice makes it really hard to deal with her. I mean, waves of Ice senbons, and now this mirror dome jutsu? Along with the fact that she can do one-handed seals, and she is a pretty nasty surprise."_

Sai was in a slightly better condition, being outside of the dome, and was considering when he was going to put forward Naruto's proposition, as the fake hunter-nin was more difficult to defeat than he had anticipated. His thoughts were put on hold as he felt Yugito accessing her Bijuu's chakra.

_"Well, this will make defeating the accomplice easier, but I will need to use one of Naruto's seals to stop Yugito from killing the girl,"_ Sai thought reaching into a vest pocket for a sealing tag.__

Sai watched as Yugito began to smash the ice mirrors forming the dome, eventually reaching the last one and shattering it, causing Haku to fall out of it with a cry of pain. As Yugito stepped forward to punch Haku into oblivion, Sai blurred behind the Bijuufied kunoichi and put Naruto's sealing tag on the back of her neck, causing Yugito to go unconscious and forcing the Bijuu's chakra into its seal.

Haku looked up at Sai, before saying:

'You know, there is nothing I hate more than traitors.'

'I am not betraying her, but I need to put forward a proposition from my teammate, and she was about to crush you,' Sai said calmly, laying Yugito out in a more comfortable position.

'Such would be my punishment for failing Zabuza-sama, and all propositions that you have for me should go to him, as he is my master,' Haku said, pulling off her hunter-nin mask and revealing to Sai that he was in fact a boy.

'It does not necessarily concern Zabuza, as he may be dead by now,' Sai said.

'If anyone tries to harm Zabuza-sama, then they will die,' Haku said, determination clear in his voice.

'Do you really want to live your life as a tool to a man who doesn't really care if you live or die, unless it stops you from completing his goal?' Sai asked, seeing if he could get Haku to question his loyalty.

'Yes,' Haku replied briefly.

'Why?'

'He saved my life.'

'So?'

With Ino, Samui and Omoi__

Samui had killed her opponent and had moved off to help Omoi with his, as he had been having a little trouble once his opponent had revealed that he could leech chakra through mere touch.

Meanwhile Ino was sneaking up on her opponent as her Kage Bunshin, which had been taught to her by Naruto, distracted him by attacking with a chokuto. As her Kage Bunshin thrust at her opponent he moved closer to Ino's hiding place by coincidence as he tried to back off. Seizing the opportunity, Ino bolted out of her hiding place and knocked him out with the handle of her kunai. Ordinarily she would have killed him, no matter how much it disgusted her, but he had made no move to attack her. It was almost as if he was asking for repentance and a second chance. Thinking this line of thought, she used her Shintenshin no Jutsu to walk his mind and see if he truly wanted to repent.

Samui and Omoi, finishing off their opponent a few minutes later after Omoi acted like he was out of chakra, saw Ino's slumped body and settled down to wait before she came back out.

'Not cool,' said Samui.

With Sai and Haku

"Does he mean to say that if I went to Konoha, I could have a family? I could have a different purpose?" Haku's mind was racing. To tell the truth, he hated the fact that he served Zabuza so well, but it was pretty much all he knew, so he stayed, afraid of being on her own. Now it seemed that Konoha was offering him a chance to leave, she would never be alone again.

'Thanks,' he said briefly, turning to Sai and smiling.

'It was nothing, after all Naruto did the same for me,' he said, smiling before looking towards Naruto's fight.

'Do you think I could be on the same team as you and Naruto?' It was obvious Haku didn't really want him to leave, so Sai stayed.

'Yeah, after all he calls the Hokage "Jiji" so it shouldn't really be a problem,' Sai said.

'He does what?' Haku asked, scandalized. Sai just laughed.

Now with all fights apart from Naruto's finished, everyone gathered to watch Naruto's fight with Zabuza; after all it wasn't everyday that one saw two Kenjutsu masters fight with pure Kenjutsu. Some of the genin were about to raise questions seeing the unconscious missing-nin from Ame, Haku, and especially the unconscious Yugito, but Kanako told them to deal with it after Naruto's fight with Zabuza was finished unless they needed medical attention. As they watched Naruto and Zabuza fight they discussed it amongst themselves.

'Man, I ain't sure that I could beat that brat,' B rapped as he watched the two fight. At the statement the Kumo genin, including the recently awoken Yugito, looked slightly alarmed; B was one of the best shinobi in Kumo, if not the best.

'Well, he is able to beat the Sandaime Hokage in pure Ninjutsu,' Kanako said proudly, remembering the spar that the two held once a month. At this the jaws of all the Genin, Haku and B dropped; the Sandaime Hokage specialized in Ninjutsu and Boujutsu, to be able to beat him only using Ninjutsu was incredible.

'It's more like dancing, isn't it,' Haku commented as they watched Naruto flow through and around Zabuza's attacks before inflicting his own. All the spectators had to agree, as Naruto's movements, at least what they could see of them, were very graceful, full of twirls and spins.

Eventually it got to the stage where Naruto had one of his ninjato pointed at Zabuza's throat and the other at his heart, Kubikiribōchō lying several meters off to one side after Naruto cut off one of Zabuza's hands.

'Do you surrender?' Naruto said, his eyes and voice giving everyone the chills.

Before Zabuza could spit in his face, everyone heard clapping from the far end of the bridge. Everyone looked past the two Kenjutsu masters and saw Gato with a few hundred bandits and cutthroats behind him.

'Gato what is this?' Zabuza roared in anger at having been betrayed by his now former employer.

'This was always my plan; you missing-nin cost too much. I got all of these men for the very same price, and it seems that you couldn't even do the job. Pathetic, the "Demon of the Hidden Mist", more like a weak-willed kitten,' Gato sneered at the former member of the Seven Swordsmen.

Zabuza turned back to Naruto, who had lowered his swords slightly.

'It seems that we are no longer enemies,' he said briefly before walking to one side and picking up Kubikiribōchō. He looked at Naruto, who had unsealed an O-Katana from a storage seal after sheathing his ninjatos.

'Together?' He asked him, receiving a nod in return, and with that the two of them plunged into the mass of men facing them.

The remainder of the shinobi watched as the two of them working their way quickly through the men, shredding whatever formation they had previously been in. Naruto used his pure speed to cut his way forward, jumping over the head of men and twirling this way and that, while Zabuza used pure strength cutting down all who opposed him in wide sweeping blows, but received a lot of damage in return. Zabuza eventually collapsed as Naruto cut down the last few men before turning to Gato, who he handed over to the recently arrived crowd of Wave villagers. He then returned as Haku knelt down to his former master in order to hear his last words.

'Haku, I am sorry for the way I treated you, but it's too late now. Take Kubikiribōchō with you; there are Kenjutsu scrolls on it back in the hideout. Go with Konoha, they will look after you due to your bloodline, apparently there are members of your family there as well,' Zabuza said, gasping in between words.

'Thank you for all you gave me Zabuza. I will make sure that you are not forgotten,' Haku said, closing his eyes for a time in sadness. He then retrieved Kubikiribōchō from nearby and sealed it within a scroll, before taking Zabuza off the bridge and over to the mainland of the Elemental Nations.

2 Weeks later 

After that there was a huge celebration held by the villagers of Wave, which increased after Naruto and Sai brought back all the money Gato had stolen from them while accompanying Haku. Zabuza and Naruto were honored as the Heroes of Wave, which got Naruto a lot of attention, which he didn't particularly want. And the word of Konoha's Deathly Angel's true identity was spread across the Elemental Nations. In order to escape from all the attention pretty much all of the shinobi hid in the nearby forests training; none of them seemed to like the fame very much.

The missing-nin from Amegakure that Ino had knocked out was called Kureno, and he had begged for a second chance to Kanako and asked if it was possible he could taken in by Konoha. He was very skilled in Genjutsu and had formed a natural friendship with both Ino and Kurenai, although Kiba remained slightly suspicious of him.

Haku meanwhile became friends with both of the Konoha teams and most of the Kumo team, as Karui treated suspiciously. But she was best friends with Team 7 and Kureno, who had hated his time as an Ame shinobi and as a missing-nin and now that he had become friends with others, started smiling a lot more.

Eventually it was time for the three teams, Haku and Kureno to leave Wave and go their separate ways. The Kumo team was to go back to Kumo until the Chunin Exams, and B was grumbling incessantly about not be able to leave the city for almost 2 months. The Konoha ninja, now that their final missions needed to register in the Chunin Exams were complete, would be staying and training in Konoha for them. All of the genin promised to face each other in the exams; eager to see how much their friends had grown. However the most surprising thing was when Tazuna and Tsunami asked to talk with Kakano, Naruto and Kurenai.

'Okay, so what's this about?' Kakano asked as the three shinobi stood in the empty dining room with the two adults.

'Well, seeing the actions of the group of shinobi that helped has made many parents wonder if their children could grow to do the same,' Tsunami started uncertainly.

'You don't mean to say that-?' Kurenai started, eyes wide.

'Yes, many children, after seeing and hearing of the battle on the bridge, wish to become shinobi. Now even if you don't accept to take them, we shall still give a majority of our trade to Konoha, but even Inari wants to become a shinobi. So I think that if you do accept to take them, we will allow you to recruit shinobi from Wave,' Tazuna stated.

'We will need to discuss this before we make our decision,' Naruto said, interested by the idea. At this the two adults nodded and filed out of the room. Once they were gone the three shinobi began to discuss the possibility of Inari and a few other children going to Konoha with them.

'It would be a bonus to Konoha, as we would gain a crop of new shinobi, and even if we decline, they will still trade with us,' Kanako said.

'And I think Hokage-sama will like the idea, although we will have to come up with a different training system for them, as many are likely going to be too old to attend the academy,' Kurenai put in.

'So we are in agreement; we will accept, and on the way back to Konoha we shall think of a training program to put them through to make up for the academy,' Naruto concluded, interested at training from a teacher's perspective.

'Although it does depend on how many are wanting to go to Konoha,' Kanako added, resting her head in her hands.

'Tazuna!' Naruto called out through the door.

'Yes?'

'Just how many children are interested?' Naruto asked smiling.

'I think around twelve pairs of parents are thinking of the idea, so that would be around 15 kids as several of them have two kids,' Tazuna said, rapidly estimating in his head.

'Perfect. Well we have agreed to take those fifteen back to Konoha with us, although they better be prepared to leave soon, as we are leaving in two days, so can you go round and notify the parents of this decision?' Naruto asked kindly. Tazuna nodded an affirmative before hurrying out of the house to try and find the children's parents.

As such the two Konoha teams found themselves leaving Wave two days later accompanied by 15 children, many of whom had immediately started addressing the Konoha genin as their older brothers of sisters. The Kumo team had left the day before, so everyone was slightly late to the meeting point as Wave had decided to have a massive celebration last night, and everyone was really tired. All the parents were anxiously saying goodbye to their children, all of whom were really excited at the thought of becoming shinobi, and Kanako was carrying a document for the Hokage containing a trade agreement between Wave and Konoha.

Two days later all the genin had become rather annoyed by the loud shouts and talking of the children, to the point that that night, Naruto got fed up and started training their fitness, consequently exhausting the children. Due to them being tired it would take an extra half day to reach the Konoha gates, and Kanako beat Naruto over the head when she realized this fact.

Around one o'clock in the afternoon on the next day they finally arrived at Konoha's massive gates, and all of the children were subdued by awe.

_"Everything's so big!"_ Inari thought as he looked at the buildings inside Konoha's gates as Kanako and Kurenai signed them in.

'So what's with all the kids?' Izumo asked as he looked at the children.

'Apparently all of them want to become shinobi,' Kanako sighed tiredly, before motioning for everyone to follow her inside. Kurenai dismissed Team 8, telling them they had a few days off before they would be expected for training once more. As such it was a group of 22 that trouped off to the Hokage's tower, Team 7 looking out for the children concernedly, making sure none strayed off.

Hokage's Office

Hiruzen sighed in consternation; Team 7 and 8 were a day late from their mission, and although with the Jounin-senseis present along with Naruto and Sai could look after themselves and keep their team safe, he couldn't help but worry. He was broken from his thoughts when seals that Naruto had put into his desk indicated him that there were people approaching his office.

'Hey Jiji,' Naruto said, opening the door, and letting in what seemed to be a mass of people. Hiruzen stared quietly at the children and the two unknown missing-nins before sighing quietly.

'Naruto, perhaps you would be so kind as to tell me why this people are here?' His tone indicated that he was going to have to talk with Naruto afterwards. Naruto gulped.

'Well, these two are missing-nin that wish to join Konoha,' Naruto said, indicating Kureno and Haku.

'And why would they want to do that?' Hiruzen asked, interrupting Naruto.

'Well Haku is a member of the Yuki Clan, and has family in Konoha. He was also never an actual shinobi so the Hunter-nin aren't after him. Meanwhile Kureno was a missing-nin from Amegakure that escaped while Hanzo was fighting the civil war, which has apparently ended,' Kanako said, seeing that Hiruzen was making Naruto flounder.

'And what can they contribute?' Hiruzen said in a clipped tone; he should have known Naruto would manage to be embroiled in something like this.

'Hokage-sama, I have several scrolls on Kenjutsu and Water Jutsu from my former master Momochi Zabuza,' Haku said, stepping forward slightly.

'And I have a good knowledge of Genjutsu and assassination techniques used by Ame shinobi,' Kureno said in a quiet tone.

Hiruzen had to admit; those were both very useful things.

'All right you two can join, and as neither of you are evaluated on your rank, you'll be attaches to Team 7 as they are who you are most comfortable with,' Hiruzen sighed. The two stepped back.

'Now I hope one of you has an answer as to why there are around 15 children in my office?' Hiruzen glared at Naruto before Kanako coughed quietly.

'Actually Hokage-sama, there is something here for you to read,' she said as she pulled out the missive from Tazuna. Hiruzen looked over it before saying:

'Well, we shall send a Chunin saying that we agree, but have any of you come up with any ideas of how we shall train them?' Hiruzen said in a slightly kinder tone as he regarded the children.

'Actually Jiji, I have a suggestion. Perhaps we could do the same that we did with me and Sai, just on a lower level, perhaps you could let some of the genin join in as a learning experience before they become Jounin-senseis,' Naruto put in from one side.

'Actually that isn't a bad idea, but first we shall need to find a place for them to live,' Hiruzen said.

'They could live in my apartment building, along with Kureno, as not many live there due to my status, and it is well protected due to my seals,' said Naruto, as he got along well with the apartment owner and had put seals all over the place to prevent it from being damaged or burnt down.

'So we are in agreement, they shall live in Kosuke's apartment building for the time being, depending on whether they want to move out,' Hiruzen said, nodding.

'Now all apart from Sai, Kanako and Naruto are dismissed. Ino and Kurenai, could you take Haku to her compound and introduce her to her family, and also take Kureno and the children to Kosuke's; just tell him that I sent you, he'll understand,' Hiruzen said before turning his attention to the three in front of him.

'Kanako, can you hand over your report on the mission,' Hiruzen, which he summarily put on top of the huge stack of papers that his Kage Bunshin were working on.

'All right, as we all know the Chunin Exams are being held within Konoha in around a month and a half's time. This will be a prime opportunity for agents to infiltrate Konoha, so we need to prepare for extra security and perhaps even an invasion. This is primarily a task for you three as your Fuuinjutsu and Ink jutsu will allow us to keep track of security and warn us if an invasion is likely. So I need you three to come up with a way to monitor the village, also I need you Kanako and Naruto to go over the seals on Konoha's walls and if possible, upgrade them. Sai, while they are doing that, you will be monitoring the incoming competitors to check if something is off, is this understood?' Hiruzen briefed them.

'Hai, Hokage-sama,' the three replied.

'Oh, Jiji, it might be time to reveal the identity of Konoha's Deathly Angel,' Naruto suggested. Hiruzen looked at him, curious as to his reasoning, before Naruto motioned to Kanako's report.

'Dismissed,' Hiruzen said vaguely as he began reading of their most recent mission.


	6. Chapter 6: 1st and 2nd Exams, Prelims

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fruits Basket

Note: Due to the poll results from my profile, this story will be a small harem story. Although for those that will hate me for that I will be starting a single relationship story soon, although that will move a lot slower than this one.

Also note that this is not a Naruto/Fruits Basket crossover, I just like the character of Kureno

Naruto and Sai sighed tiredly as they waited for Ino to meet them at the bridge; over the past four weeks they had been working to the bone preparing for the Chunin Exams while also completing their mission for the Hokage. There was now only two weeks until the Exams, and they had finally figured out the solution to their mission after Naruto had invented something called a relay seal. This seals were connected to seals all around Konoha, transmitting information on people, location, time, and keyed to pick up mentions of invasions and the like. All this information would then transmit itself to the Hokage every half hour. This was compounded by Sai using the same seal on his Ink creatures, allowing them to mobile information gatherers on the competing teams. Another reason for their tiredness was the children they had picked up in Wave: They literally drove Naruto insane, demanding for training at all hours, and eventually they had to create Kage Bunshins to start their training. And between all of this they had been helping Ino continue to get ready for the Exams, not that she really needed it, but she wanted to impress.

'Hey guys, sorry I'm late!' Ino called as she rushed over, having run to the meeting point to help keep up her fitness. Ino had changed a lot from the fangirl that she had been in the academy. She now wore black pants and red shirt, although this was framed by a black ankle-length trench coat with a red angel on the back. Her chokuto was at her hip, confident that she could use it efficiently having been taught in Kenjutsu by Naruto. She had her headband hanging loosely around her neck.

'It's all right, after all nee-chan hasn't arrived yet, so you aren't really late,' Sai said smiling. Ordinarily Haku and Kureno would be there with the three of them, but as Kanako said it was just the three of them that needed to be here, they were watching over the children from Wave, who had a habit of getting in trouble. Typically because Konohamaru managed to involve them in his pranks. Naruto had introduced Konohamaru to Haku, Kureno and Ino about half a week after they had returned, and it was rather explosive when he thought that Haku was a girl.

'Hey guys,' Kanako said after shunshining to the end of the bridge.

'Hey nee-chan,' all three of them replied as Ino had begun to see her friends as her second family.

'Alright, we aren't doing training today, as you have the day off to think about and sign these,' Kanako said, handing out three forms for the Chunin Exams. All three took one glance at them before saying something, not looking up:

'Anyone have a brush?'

Kanako sighed.

_"I should have known it was worthless asking these three; they were going to say yes all along." ___

15 minutes later the three walked out of the Hokage's Office, having just handed in their forms for the Chunin Exams. They weren't surprised to encounter Team 8 on the way out, as they knew that they would be attending. As such they waited for Team 8 before they all decided that they would go see how Team 10 was doing and from there they would split; Team 7 were going to go bug Team 9 having spent a few training sessions together, while Team 8 was going to go spend time with the children from Wave.

As such they all dawdled their way to training ground 10 in order to meet Team 10 and see how they were doing. Naruto grumbled when they initially set out, not wanting to have to put up with Asuma, who always disliked him due to his casual friendliness with most of the kunoichi around town, but came along anyway.

As the six genin walked through the training ground ten boundaries, they became aware of high pitched shrieking ahead of them. Everyone winced in pity for Choji and Shikamaru; they must have suffered broken eardrums being in the presence of that. After the shrieking stopped Kiba said something that everyone agreed with:

'Poor bastards.'

Naruto quickly created several sets of earplugs using his Uzumaki bloodline before handing them out to everyone, and everyone proceeded to stuff them in their ears in order to preserve their eardrums. Now thoroughly prepared, everyone walked towards the sound, eventually coming to the sight of Shikamaru and Choji cloud watching while Sakura daydreamed from a nearby tree. Naruto mentally thanked Kami that Asuma seemed to be absent.

'Hey guys,' Kiba called, taking the earplugs out of his ears and waving to the team.

'Oh, hey,' Shikamaru said lazily after lifting his head to see who it was.

'So, you guys ready for the Chunin Exams?' Kiba asked.

'Well, I am thinking of entering,' Choji said while munching on a bag of chips.

'Naruto-baka, where is Sasuke-kun?' Sakura screeched while examining the two teams, thinking that Sasuke might be hidden away somewhere.

'Uh, he's been in hospital for the past 5 months,' Naruto was actually quite surprised that she didn't know.

'What! What did you do to him Naruto-baka?' Sakura screeched, if it was possible even louder.

'First day of training after our genin exams, he called my mother a whore, so I punched through three trees. Apparently he had around 78 broken bones, and will remain in the hospital for around another year,' Naruto said in a conversational tone, shocking Team 10.

'What!' Sakura screeched in disbelief before hurrying off to the hospital. And as Naruto walked off to one side, Shikamaru turned to Ino.

'Three trees?' He asked incredulously.

'Yep. One punch,' She said almost proudly.

'Well I see that someone's not a fangirl any longer,' Shikamaru commented, taking in her appearance.

'The genin exams at the academy gave me a wakeup call,' Ino said shortly before she began to talk to the two of other things.

After their conversation with Team 10, in which Naruto learned that Asuma was actually a very lazy sensei, the two teams split up, with Team 7 making the short journey to training ground 9. Ino knew what to expect as she had met Gai during her initial training before Wave, but she still hated the eternal sunset Genjutsu that Lee and Gai managed to produce, like so many others.

And even though Naruto and Sai had spent their time ever since Gai had gained the team last year trying to break Hyuuga Neji out of his icy attitude, neither had managed to, as Neji would not divulge the cause of it.

However all three had agreed that at the moment Tenten was the most likable of the three making up Team 9; although all admired the training and dedication shown by Lee, he did drive them crazy with his talk of "flames of youth".

'Hey guys, and Tenten, and Neji,' Naruto called, wondering how Neji would react when he greeted by his name, when before he just counted him in with the guys.

'And what is your exclusion of me from guys meant to indicate, Naruto-san?' Neji said in his uptight manner.

'Just that you're no longer included in that category by my standards,' At least Neji treated him and Sai courteously, as both had beaten him whenever they sparred, but he didn't extend the same to Ino.

Neji didn't react to the direct insult and turned back to watching Lee and Gai do their insane physical exercises.

Ino spent her time talking with Tenten as the two watched Neji and Naruto spar along with Lee and Gai. Both Neji and Naruto, along with occasionally Sai, had to put up with Lee constantly challenging them, as they were his "eternal rivals". All three of them had silently agreed that they would take turns dealing with Lee's challenges to make them less of a bother. And although all three internally found Lee's determination impressive, it annoyed the hell out of them, especially when they were having a bad day. And Naruto drew the majority of the challenges, being a former student of Gai himself, eventually surpassing him due to his sheer speed.

As Naruto and Neji sparred, all knew that it was Naruto who was going to win, as Neji's styles were purely Hyuuga techniques, and all Taijutsu based, meaning that Naruto could just throw jutsu after jutsu at Neji until he got exhausted. However, Naruto liked to test Neji, and faced him in Taijutsu, decreasing his chakra weights whenever Neji scored a hit on one of his tenkutsu. Eventually it got to the point where he got so fast that even Gai could barely even see him, and Neji gave the victory over to Naruto after getting punch through a tree.

'Yosh, Naruto-san's flames burn as brightly as ever!' Lee exclaimed loudly.

'I think it is time that we go, nii-san,' Naruto said to Gai, knowing that if he didn't, Lee would challenge him to a fight.

The three from Team 7 quickly made their way out of the training ground.

'Well I shall see you guys tomorrow,' Naruto said as he turned to go over to Jiji's office, while Sai and Ino went over to training ground 4, where Team 8 along with Haku and Kureno were currently training the children that had come with them from Wave. Ino turned to Sai:

'How about a race to see who can get to the training ground first?' Ino wasn't afraid to ask Sai to a race as her training had increased her speed to low-Jounin levels when she took off her chakra weights.

'Well if you aren't afraid to lose,' Sai grinned before both of them released what chakra weights they had and took off, leaving massive dust clouds behind them.

With Team 8, Haku and Kureno 

Team 8 and Kureno had unanimously decided that Haku was the best out of the five of them to instruct the 15 children in the basics of being shinobi. As such the four of them were watching Haku tell the children to do pushups and sit-ups in order to increase their stamina and strength.

'Well, we are in agreement that Haku is a sadistic bastard when it comes to training,' Kiba stated as they had noticed that Haku seemed to take pleasure in watching others suffer through the joys of training.

However everyone's attention was grabbed when they saw a massive dust cloud billowing towards the gate. Hinata activated her Byakugan to see Ino and Sai racing their way towards the gate, with Sai narrowly winning.

'What the hell was that?' Kiba asked as everyone gazed in the direction of the training ground gate.

'That was just Ino and Sai having a little race,' Hinata said. This immediately caught the attention of all the children who raced off to greet their nee-chan and nii-chan, Inari sprinting out in front.

'Well at least I won't be the only one teaching them anymore, you lazy bastards,' Haku sighed. Haku himself had undergone a massive change in character ever since he came to Konoha. His appearance was pretty much the same, as apparently he had fun cross-dressing and screwing with people's heads, but around his friends his character was much more relaxed. Kureno was the same, minus the cross-dressing, but was still very wary of people he didn't know, although he seemed to relax around the children.

'Okay, now that the two of us are here, you will split up into 3 groups of 5,' they heard Sai telling the children calmly after he and Ino greeted them. The children did so relatively quickly, with there being only a few arguments about friends and so on.

'All right, the three groups will work on a rotational basis; one group will work on Ninjutsu basics, while another works on Genjutsu basics and the last on Taijutsu basics. You will have half an hour with each before you swap to the next discipline. You will be group one, you lot group two and you guys group three,' Sai said, quickly explaining their training outline. The genin quickly split themselves into different groups with Kiba, Sai and Hinata doing Taijutsu, Kureno and Shino doing Genjutsu, and leaving Ino and Haku to do Ninjutsu. Both the Ninjutsu and the Genjutsu group were merely working on activating the children's chakra networks, before the Ninjutsu group would begin work on the basic academy jutsu and the Genjutsu group would begin with basic chakra control. The Taijutsu group would be working their way through the basic academy style before doing a small sparring contest to see how well they picked it up.

Meanwhile with Naruto

Naruto had just been allowed into the Hokage's office after the secretary had run out of reasons to keep him out.

'So how are you liking it Jiji?' Naruto asked smugly as he saw the Hokage looking at what looked to be a spare table in a far corner of the room while his Kage Bunshin were working their way through the piles of papers on his desk.

'This is amazing Naruto, it's like have sensor ninja all over the city constantly transmitting!' One could clearly hear the glee in Hiruzen's voice.

What the Hokage was actually looking at was Naruto pride and joy as a sealing master; it was the receiver for all the information that his sensor seals gathered and transmitted. It was a 3D model encompassing all of Konoha showing the location of every single person in the city, and if they were a ninja, the seals could even catch samples of their unique chakra patterns, allowing someone to track a person through the city and hear all they say, etc. All the Hokage had to do was touch his finger to a chakra signature, send a burst of chakra, and the receiver would come up with a list of recent information. In essence it was the ultimate security measure in terms of dealing with spies and capturing criminals. Along with the fact that every ANBU Captain had received upgraded headpieces to use in the case of an invasion, as they were linked to a microphone on the receiver.

'Also Jiji, nee-chan and I went over the seals on Konoha's walls and we upgraded several, meaning they could stand over 100 of Tsunade's punches combined at any one time. We even managed to re-key the seals for Konoha's alarm field to be able to change it into a solid barrier of chakra that will be able to stop a tailed beast bomb from the Nibi no Nekomata,' Naruto said proudly, as he had invented a bunch of completely new seals for it to work.

'Really?' Hiruzen asked curiously, in the case of an invasion that would help greatly.

'Yep!'

'Well remind Kanako and Sai to come see me with you when you want to receive your payment,' Hiruzen said, smiling, before turning back to the receiver as Naruto left.

As Naruto was walking through Konoha to Ichiraku's Ramen he heard the sound of a commotion and a rather familiar voice.

'Put me down!'

'Shut the hell up brat! That fucking hurt, so I am going to teach you a lesson!'

Naruto immediately recognized both voices; the younger one was that of Konohamaru, the Sandiame's grandson, while the older one was that of Sabaku no Kankuro, middle child of the Yondaime Kazekage and specializing in the use of puppets. Naruto raced round the corner to see Konohamaru being held at shoulder height of the ground by Kankuro, who was accompanied by a blonde girl with her hair in four buns; obviously his older sister Sabaku no Temari. Naruto briefly wondered where their younger sister was before dismissing the thoughts as he saw Kankuro draw back his fist in order to punch Konohamaru.

Kankuro was about to pummel this brat; he ran into him and has the nerve to demand that he be let go.

'Put me down!' The brat he was holding off the ground shouted at him.

_"That's it, he's pissed me off!" _

'Shut the hell up brat! That fucking hurt, so I am going to teach you a lesson!' Kankuro shouted at the boy, before pulling his fist back to punch him.

His fist launched, he was certain of that, but it never reached Konohamaru, as Naruto had intercepted the punch calmly, as if it was little more than a feather.

Temari gasped when she saw the rather handsome boy intercept Kankuro's punch like it was nothing. She hadn't even seen him move; one moment he wasn't there, the next he was.

Naruto calmly stopped Kankuro's fist before grabbing his wrist and forcing him to drop Konohamaru, who he then caught before he landed on the ground.

'Go over to your friends Kono,' Naruto said in a voice of quiet anger as he nudged the young boy back.

'Yes nii-san!' Konohamaru said confidently now that Naruto was here. Who subsequently turned back to face the two Suna genin.

'You fool; you could have started a war. Did you even know that that was the Sandaime Hokage's grandson you just tried to hit?' Kankuro paled slightly at the knowledge, but backed off slightly before beginning to pull the huge package off his back.

'Kankuro, you're going to bring Crow out here?' Temari asked furiously.

'This asshole deserves it for insulting me,' Kankuro said angrily.

'I really wouldn't try doing that,' Naruto warned, creating his wings with his chakra. As soon as Temari saw the wings she gasped.

'Kankuro, stop! That's Konoha's Deathly Angel! The youngest Bingo-Booker in history and the youngest S-ranked nin,' Temari said hurriedly, stopping Kankuro in his actions; after all, and S-ranked shinobi is not a fight very many chose.

'Well not to mention my teammates behind you with a tanto and a chokuto to each of your necks,' Naruto said in an amused tone, before turning and telling whoever was in the tree to come out and stop hiding. At this both of the Suna genin looked at each other anxiously; Gaia had never taken to following orders kindly unless she liked the orders. That and the possibility that she had seen the incident involving Kankuro and Konohamaru.

Gaia looked down upon the scene from the branches that she was hanging from, having returned from checking in with the Konoha registration office to confirm that they had actually arrived, even if it was two weeks early for the Exams. She had seen the entire incident between Kankuro and the brat.

"Honestly, Kankuro's such a whiner, the brat barely bumped him," she thought, her lips twitching up in a smile, before recomposing her face into the angry glare that she usually had it in.

**"Ooh, someone powerful has arrived, Gaia; you will have to feed me his blood,"** Shukaku muttered crazily in the back of her mind. In return for Gaia being such a good source of blood and death, Shukaku had begun to call her by her real name recently.

Hearing Naruto call for her to come out, Gaia used a sand shunshin and appeared in front of her two older siblings.

'And you are?' Naruto asked knowing full well who this was.

Gaia's one visible pale green glared at him from behind chin-length spiky dark red hair that flared across her face, obscuring the majority of her face.

'Sabaku no Gaia,' she introduced briefly before turning and repatriating Kankuro.

"So this is Suna's Jinchuuriki," Naruto thought upon seeing her. It was obvious that she had been turned into a weapon by her village; but perhaps it had failed, as Naruto thought he saw a flicker of humanity in her eye as she turned back to face him.

'And you are?' Gaia asked of Team 7; Ino and Sai having shunshined behind Naruto, and sheathed their blades.

'Team 7 of Konohagakure. This is Sai, Yamanaka Ino, and my name is Uzumaki Naruto,' Naruto said, introducing his team.

'It will be interesting to face your team in the Chunin Exams Uzumaki,' Gaia said with a glint of hunger in her visible eye.

_"Oh man, Suna really did a number on her," _Naruto thought exasperatedly in disgust. Naruto and his team watched silently as the three Sand Siblings began to walk back the way they had come.

'Oh, Gaia, if you want me to fix your seal, you need only ask,' Naruto called. He saw Gaia pause and glare at him over her shoulder before she continued walking.

After the encounter with the Sand Siblings Naruto accompanied Konohamaru for a small game of ninja, before going off and doing some private training until he decided to turn in for the night. His fight with Zabuza had shown him that it was always a good idea to have a few things to pull you out of tight spots, whether it was a reliable defense jutsu or advantages on skills that you kept hidden.

The Day of the Beginning of the Chunin Exams

Team 7 had all agreed that they would meet at the bridge outside of training ground 7 as they usually did before walking to the first area of the Chunin Exams, which, funnily enough, was the Ninja Academy. They had all been told to go to room 305, which made both Naruto and Ino groan at bad jokes, that room having been the room that they used for Taijutsu basics while attending the academy. Sai never got the joke, having never attended the academy in the first place, although officially one needed to attend in order to be a Konoha shinobi. As they walked through Konoha's streets, they discussed their meeting with their friends from Kumo, who had arrived a week ago, and Sai's information on the various participants from the other shinobi villages.

Flashback no Jutsu

'Naruto!' Naruto turned as he heard the shouting of rather familiar voices, to see B, Yugito, Samui and Omoi coming towards him from down the street.

'Hm, did you guys say something?' Naruto said casually as he pulled a book out and began to read it. All four of the Kumo shinobi face-faulted.

'Yo, Naruto, ain't ya happy t'see us?' B rapped badly while he recovered from his face-fault.

'What? Oh it's you guys, when did you get here?' Naruto said, acting innocent.

And so the five of them talked about things that they had been doing, including sadistic senseis.

'Hokage-sama made me organize security for the city. Let's just say, I'm not known as the foremost Fuuinjutsu expert in the Elemental Nations for nothing. You guys won't be able to move a muscle without us knowing,' Naruto said smugly.

'Now that sounds intriguing, can you tell us more Naruto-kun?' Yugito asked, knowing what the answer would be, but still wanted to tease him.

'Where is Karui?' Naruto asked, changing the subject, and for good reason, as Karui wasn't with them. Omoi sighed.

'Karui didn't want to attend the Exams; after sparring against your team she felt as if she needed to do more work and try and go for Chunin next year,' Omoi explained, around the sucker he had just put in his mouth. Naruto just nodded in acceptance before the five of them moved off to find the rest of Teams 7 and 8.

Flashback no Jutsu End

Naruto sighed; Karui should have attended, it wasn't her skills keeping her back, just her hotheaded nature, and he was sure that Kiba was going to be disappointed about not being able to spar her, having been beaten by her in Wave.

Team 7 quickly arrived at the academy with over half an hour of time left to spare before they needed to be here. The three of them walked straight past the Genjutsu the two Chunins Izumo and Kotetsu put up on the door label of room 205, and were the first team to be waiting in 305. Unfortunately they had been the interest of Team 9 when they arrived, and Lee, seeing them walk up another floor, finally realized it was a Genjutsu, and shouted it rather loudly before rushing up after them. So they were only really about fifteen minutes ahead of everyone else. With everyone breaking into their teams or hanging out with their friends. Naruto just stayed with his team and Teams 8 and 10, although he did pay a brief visit to the Kumo team. At the moment however he was beginning to get annoyed: Sakura.

'You stupid Naruto-baka! How could you put the great Sasuke-kun in hospital?' She wailed, right in his ear. At this many of the gathered shinobi looked round at Naruto, wondering what he had to do with the "Last Uchiha" not being present.

'Quiet down, don't you people understand that people are very tense at the moment,' an older Konoha genin said, coming over to the group of rookies.

'You know, considering that you guys are rookies, I'll lend you guys a hand. I have information on every competitor here; there's even a rumor gong around that Konoha's Deathly Angel is in these exams. If you can guess who it is then I shall tell you everything I can on him,' the genin said, pausing all talk in the hall at the information.

'And you are?' Sai asked stepping forward slightly, even though he already knew.

'Ah, I haven't introduced myself have I? I am Yakushi Kabuto and 7th time veteran of the Chunin Exams,' Kabuto said, causing a snigger from Kiba. The two of them got into a brief argument, which was interrupted when Sai asked about the information Kabuto had mentioned earlier.

'So who is it you want to get info on?' Kabuto asked, pulling out his info cards.

'Samui and Yugito of Kumo, along with Sabaku no Gaia,' Sai requested.

'Ah, you know their names, that doesn't make it any fun,' Kabuto said with a bit of sarcasm in his voice.

'Let's see, Sabaku no Gaia, no D-ranks to speak of, but has completed 15 C-ranks and 2 B-ranks, impressive. Her control over the sub-element of sand is legendary from reports of those who witnessed her fight and escaped. It is also important to note that she has never suffered from any sort of injury in her entire life, not even a scratch,' Kabuto read, shocking everyone but the Sand Siblings and Team 7, who's own info said much the same thing.

'As for Yugito and Samui of Kumo, the two are on the same genin team and were trained by the Raikage's brother. Yugito has a great control of her fire affinity, almost to the point where her mastery is unprecedented excepting fire affinity experts such as Uchiha Madara. Samui has an affinity for both lightning and water elements and both are reasonably good in Kenjutsu along with their teammate,' Kabuto read of his card, annoyed he didn't have their mission record.

'Well I have a person I would like for you to give me information on,' all turned, rather surprised, to see Gaia, who proceeded to point wordlessly at Naruto, who rolled his eyes casually before motioning for Kabuto to go ahead. They wouldn't be able to do anything about it anyway. Everyone could see the grin on Kabuto's face.

'Uzumaki Naruto, full name classified at the highest level, and commonly referred to as "Angel" while on missions due to being the possessor of the title of the youngest Bingo-Booker in history. He is also Kage level in Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Kenjutsu and Fuuinjutsu, with his only weak point being Genjutsu, although that is around ANBU level. Known to the Elemental Nations as Konoha's Deathly Angel, he is usually accompanied on missions by Hatake Kanako, or Kanako of the Sharingan, and Konoha's Panther, his teammate Sai. He left a blood clone at the academy while undergoing private training from around seven elite ANBU and undertook many missions while officially only an academy student and a civilian. His mission record rivals that of Hatake Kanako in S-ranked missions and has been recorded to have beaten the current Hokage while limiting himself to only Ninjutsu. In short he is one of the most dangerous individuals currently alive and the only one of those at the age of 12. Full mission record. 15 D-ranks, 223 C-ranks, 63 B-ranks, 32 A-ranks and 14 S-rank missions. He is known as Konoha's Angel due to the fact while fighting he can subconsciously channel chakra to his back and create solid wings. These wings can also interact as part of an Ultimate Defense and even allow him to fly. He is recorded to have three bloodlines, although he only uses one due to the other two being classified. The one he uses is his Uzumaki chakra, which allows him to create temporary solid objects due to the quality level of his chakra, which even for known Uzumaki is off the records. It is rumored that it is highly likely that at the end of the Chunin Exams his heritage and full ancestry, along with his bloodlines, will be revealed, which have remained classified thus far due to the possibility of causing the Fourth Shinobi War,' Kabuto said, awing everyone, excepting Naruto and Sai.

_"I didn't think that he was that capable even after looking up his status in the Bingo Book,"_ Yugito thought as she stared at Naruto, awestruck.

Naruto was silent as the room silently stared at him, before he finally started to get annoyed by it.

'What the hell are you staring at!' He shouted, subconsciously flaring his chakra into his wings.

_"There he goes, just like Kabuto-san said he could,"_ Gaia thought as Shukaku's mutterings grew louder in the back of her mind.

'All right maggots, that's enough!' The newly arrived proctor shouted, his Chunin assistants behind him.

Naruto had spent the majority of the first exam talking with Kaa-chan and Kyare-chan in his mindscape while he was waiting for time to pass, although he did answer the questions so that Ino could use her Shintenshin no Jutsu on him. Sai wouldn't need any help; being trained the same way Naruto was originally. But it had been very interesting to see how various people were cheating their way through, as was the point of course. Gaia had used a sand eyeball, which Naruto had to say was pretty creepy. The Hyuugas used their Byakugan, that being the obvious solution as they could see through people and just copy their answers. Kiba and Shino had used their various companions, although Akamaru was a little obvious. Shikamaru had used a good strategy, writing down his answers, being a genius, while also writing Choji's using his shadow possession technique. Sakura just knew the answers. The Kumo shinobi had been tapping their answers out slowly to each other in Morse code. But Naruto thought that Kankuro's strategy was the worst, as it was pretty obvious and it only had one chance of success, if it failed, then the Sand Siblings were screwed, as they had to pass the first two Exams as their teams. Naruto shuddered to think at how Gaia would react to them failing in the first exam; she might even kill her siblings.

'All right! It is now time for the tenth and final question! So you will need to listen to the rules that are attached to this question! 1: If you fail this question that you will never be allowed to enter the Chunin Exams ever again, in other words, you will remain a genin for the rest of your lives!' At this cries of denial and tumult rose up

'And how will you stop us? We can just go to another exam next year, at which time the proctor will have changed due to it being in a different village,' Kiba cried rather logically.

'I don't care, my exam, my rules,' Ibiki said, shrugging. Naruto was mentally giggling at the game Ibiki was playing. The two had worked alongside each other on several occasions, both being able to break down the minds of those they were interrogating, although Naruto worked best if it was a traitor to the village.

'However, we are generous, we will give you a chance to leave before the 10th question is given. If you choose to do so, then your teammates fail as well but you will be able to take the Chunin Exams next year! You have 15 minutes to make your decision!' Ibiki said before moving off the stage.

Over the next 15 minutes hand rose and fell as people gave into the mental strain, taking their teammates down with them. Towards the end however, Hinata cracked and began to raise her hand up. Naruto immediately held it back down before whispering fiercely:

'Are you going to give up on that promise and be the cause of Team 8 not being their when we spar our friends?'

Hinata immediately felt ashamed inside, but also gained a sense of conviction, she was going through this for her team.

Ibiki, seeing that no one else was going to raise their hand, moved forward to the lectern.

'Congratulations, you who remain have just passed the first Exam,' Ibiki waited for the uproar, and he wasn't disappointed.

'WHAT?' Naruto burst out laughing, their reaction was hilarious. Although after he quieted down he was roped into explaining the meaning of the first exam because apparently he was a know-it-all.

'And the final question was to test our resolve, after all, if we can't hold our resolve in here how are we supposed to hold it out there? Did I get that all right, Ibiki?' He finished.

'Yeah, you got it all kiddo, now your next proctor will be someone very familiar to you,' Ibiki finished with a slight grin.

'Huh?' Was all Naruto managed to say before the window next to Ibiki was shattered by a flying giant black blur.

15 seconds Later

Naruto smashed his head onto the desk; he should have known they would choose her, of all people. Several rows behind him Sai was having the exact same thoughts. Naruto then smiled; he had just thought of a way to psyche some of the competitors out.

'Nee-chan!' He shouted, jumping up and running towards the second exam proctor, Anko.

'Naru-chan!' Anko shouted back excitedly before they had a massive hug. As they hugged one another, everyone apart from Ino, Ibiki and Sai thought:

"These two know each other?/ Naruto knows this woman?"

'Are we going to the forest?' Naruto asked rather excitedly, he loves training ground 44. Ino and Sai came up and greeted Anko, who hugged them both as well, while everyone apart from Ibiki just sat and stared at the four of them.

'All right, I am the Proctor of the second Exam, now you need to be at training ground 44 within half an hour or you fail,' Anko said, turning to the rest of the participants before turning back and shunshining to the area with Team 7.

Gaia was annoyed; she had just wasted her time getting to training ground 44 due to the misdirection that apparently some people had been ordered to give. That and the thought of Naruto had been weighing on her brain constantly since she had met the boy.

_"For some reason he seems a little familiar, and why would he offer to fix my seal for me? He must know what I am?"_ she thought as she strode towards the second part of the Chunin Exams.

Naruto, Sai and Ino moved through the Forest of Death quickly, tree-hopping in order to avoid the predators that stalked the forest floor. They were following a team from Takigakure using Naruto's sensory abilities, and due to them having several sessions with Anko in this very forest for training, they stopped briefly before deciding to move ahead of them and lay an ambush. They were able to cover virtually every aspect of the shinobi arts within their team, and as such that meant if they chose the battleground it was suicide for the other team to try and defeat them. As they set up their traps, Ino made sure to make a few obvious ones so they wouldn't see the more hidden- and more lethal- ones underneath. Naruto was shivering with glee as he drew seals for kunai launchers on nearly every tree in a radius of 50 meters before loading them with a mass amount of kunai. The secret behind these launcher seals though, was that they were manually controlled by the sealer, in this case Naruto, allowing him to adapt his firing times and number of kunai for the circumstances. It was a deathtrap.

The Taki team, thankfully for them, maintained their current course and walked right into their ambush. The first signs they had of their current situation was when they caught sight of the 'obvious traps' laid by Ino, unfortunately for them, by that time they were in the middle of the larger deathtrap created by Naruto. Naruto had actually put ninja wire on a few of his kunai and created a ring of ninja wire around them silently so they couldn't escape easily in case they had some sort of automatic defense. At his command, a mass of kunai rained down upon the trapped team from all directions.

They didn't have the time to react, and each member of the team was riddled with at least 25 kunai. Then Naruto and the others rummaged through the remains of the shinobi, hoping that the scroll they were looking hadn't been shredded by the hail of sharp weaponry. It hadn't, and it happened to be an Earth scroll, which was what they were looking for. After a meager celebration consisting of Ino cheering quietly and Naruto and Sai humming happy tunes under their breaths, they held a vote on whether they should head straight to the tower or see if they could help out the other Konoha rookies. Ino was all for heading to the tower but didn't really mind either way, and Sai and Naruto agreed that the Kumo team and the Sand Siblings were the greatest threat to them. As such they would constantly monitor both teams using Sai's Ink creatures and Naruto's Kage Bunshin, while they rested at a HQ. As such Sai immediately sent out a variety of birds and small creatures that could climb, such as monkeys to monitor the Kumo team, and Naruto sent a pair of Kage Bunshin to do the same for the Sand team. Meanwhile they would look for an ideal place for their camp. After an hour and a half of looking, they found an area that was separated from the rest of the area by fallen logs and had a natural rock overhang. Along with the bunch of hungry predators that made their habitat just outside the main entrance, it was extremely unlikely that another team would attack them. After setting up their basic needs in the camp they decided that they would relax until their friends needed them or until night came. Naruto sent out clones to trail the two other rookie teams, as they didn't include Team 9, knowing they could handle themselves, as a precaution as they didn't know the status of the other teams.

Late that evening, just after dusk, Naruto was glad that he had, as according to his clone, Team 10 was having a bit of trouble with a Kusa Team. Grabbing the other two, who had stayed ready, he shunshined them to the immediate area, resulting in them having to duck under an offensive jutsu that they had been right in the path of. They immediately split up before catching the Kusa team in a pincer movement, with Ino and Sai quickly taking out the two genin to either side before Naruto flipped over a fire jutsu and beheaded the genin. All of this happened while Team 10 was looking on in shock, and Naruto hurriedly walked over to them.

'Sakura, this is why fangirls have such a high mortality rate; they don't train properly, and are therefore unable to fill their roles on the battlefield, costing lives,' Naruto said, fixing her with a steady gaze. Sakura didn't respond just looked at the ground before beginning to tear up. Shikamaru extended his thanks, but Naruto told him that it was what Konoha shinobi did; look out for each other.

Thankfully that was the only time they had to retrieve either of the two teams, as Team 10 had managed to get their scroll from that encounter, while Team 8 were able to use their Kekkei Genkai to avoid the more powerful teams. As such they were able to go to the tower and relax, although once they got there Naruto disappeared for a short amount of time to inform the Hokage of his suspicions concerning one Yakushi Kabuto.

'The shinobi gathered here are those who have passed the second round of the Chunin Exams, now the Hokage would like to make a speech concerning the meaning behind the Exams themselves,' Anko said in a rather bored tone, which a person could also see clearly on her face.

As the Hokage began his speech, Naruto's attention shifted onto different things, as was usually the case when he realized the Hokage was about to make a long speech.

_"Why does this always happen to me when I hear the old man beginning to talk,"_ Naruto thought drearily, as he soaked up some information from the speech passively, something about being a replacement for war. Although Naruto refocused his attention once he realized that the old man was done and Gekko Hayate, one of the former ANBU that had trained him was moving forward.

'All right, due to the number of people that passed the Second Exam, we shall be having a preliminary round, so that only a small proportion go to the finals, the cream of the crop,' Hayate coughed his way through the sentence.

'Why can't we all go to the finals?' Kiba asked.

'Because if you all wen to the finals, they would take about three days to complete, and some of the matches would be very boring. The finals are to attract sponsors, while the previous two tests have tested your mentality and teamwork, neither of which show how one can fare on there own against an opponent just as strong as them. In essence, the preliminaries are to stop you from embarrassing yourself in front of a huge crowd,' the Hokage couldn't help but put in.

'Thank you Hokage-sama, now the preliminaries will be randomized, although due to his nature, Uzumaki Naruto will not be fighting-' Hayate started.

'WHAT? But I am getting so bored here,' Naruto screamed out.

'Hayate, I think it will be okay if Naruto spars someone, otherwise he is going to annoy the hell out of everyone else, and we both know what tends to be the result of that,' Hiruzen said, remembering the last time something like this happened. Naruto had gotten so annoyed and bored that he tripled the Hokage's paperwork through a devastating pranking spree. He shuddered at the memory.

'Well in that case, Uzumaki-san will be allowed to fight. Now as before you will be given a chance to drop out before the preliminaries, but this time your decision will not affect your teammates. However you will need to provide a valid reason as to why you are dropping out. So, is there any one who wants to drop out?' Hayate continued. A few of the shinobi from Taki, Kusa, Kumo and Kiri dropped out, having sustained serious injuries while in the Forest of Death. However everyone was mildly surprised when Kabuto elected to drop out, claiming he had chakra exhaustion.

Orochimaru, disguised as a Kusa Jounin, looked down at the exam competitors. He knew that Hiruzen knew he was here, but thanks to the correspondence that Itachi and Naruto shared, he didn't have to worry about being attacked. As he watched on he was briefly annoyed once more that Sasuke wasn't in the exams, although once he heard of the reason why he understood. He had actually been good friend with Minato, and therefore with Kushina, so he understood Naruto's feeling of being rather touchy of the subject of family; his teammate and friend Jiraiya had been the same when they were genin.

As the genin filed up onto the balconies they split into their teams, although Naruto and his team talked with Team 8 and the Kumo Team about their journey through the forest. After around fifteen minutes of waiting around as a pair of Chunin were entering their names into the match generator, the choosing of their matches began.

**Akadou Yoroi vs Sai**

'Aw man, you're so lucky, getting to go first,' Naruto whined turning to Sai.

'Excuse me, but who has the best luck at gambling, you've almost become a gambling god,' Sai retorted jokingly before turning and leaping over the railing. The others didn't say anything, they didn't need to; they knew what the outcome of this match was going to be. Meanwhile Naruto was muttering under his breath; ever since Tsunade had introduced him to gambling a few years ago, he hadn't lost a single bet, and in the casinos of Konoha they were referring to him as The Lord of Gambles.

_"It's a completely ridiculous title,"_ Naruto moaned mentally.

Sai watched as his opponent walked down the steps from the opposite balcony, seeing if he could gain information on his fighting style by the way he walked and the way he stood. At the same time he was reviewing information that he had gleaned on this guy earlier in his head. He knew that his opponent had the ability to suck chakra from a person, he was essentially a chakra leech, but he had no information on how he was able to do this. It could be a long-range Ninjutsu technique, or it could be a touch-contact transfer, which Sai determined was more likely, therefore this would be a Taijutsu fight, as his opponent would try to stay in constant contact to avoid him using Ninjutsu.

'Are both fighters ready?' Hayate asked from the side. Sai nodded at one of the two Jounins who had taught him Kenjutsu, while Yoroi didn't say anything.

'Hajime!'

Sai waited to see if his prediction was correct, and was proven that it was when Yoroi moved back a few paces and gripped his right wrist with his left hand, before his hand was covered in a dull glow. When Yoroi looked back up at Sai, having been concentrating on his hand, he saw that he had disappeared, and immediately began looking around in an attempt to find him. He found him a few minutes later, sitting upside down on the ceiling and drawing. Yoroi prepared to jump after him, but before he could do so he heard Sai's voice.

'Ink Style: Lightning Ink Panther!'

The eyes of many watching shinobi widened as they saw a huge panther made of ink assemble itself from the pages of Sai's book, then after it was completed blue lightning began to flow along the lines of ink.

_"That is a unique fighting style,"_ Orochimaru thought, _"and it would be difficult to defeat due to the odd element."_

Everyone watched as the panther ran across the ceiling and down a wall before leaping at Yoroi, who quickly dodged it, unsure if he should attack due to the lightning flowing across the ink construct. However he wasn't given much time to think of a strategy as the panther began to hunt him relentlessly, driving him towards a corner and forcing to defend against it rather than move out of the way. Yoroi knew he had made the wrong move as the panther impacted against his arms and the lightning flowed from the panther to him, causing all of his upper body muscles to contract and seize up. Sai then lazily shunshined behind him and knocked him out, before leaving Yoroi for the med-nins present to pick up, going back up to his team.

_"Well it seems that somebody has had a few new ideas,"_ Yugito thought as she regarded Sai relaxing with his team.

_"Shukaku is screaming for that boy's blood as well, but not as much as Uzumaki's,"_ Gaia thought as she glared at Team 7.

**Abumi Zaku vs Aburame Shino**

Shino looked up at the Sound team on the other balcony, examining the genin he was about to face. One of his arms was in a cast, obviously having been injured in an encounter in the Forest of Death. The two were quiet as they made their way onto the floor and facing each other.

'It is illogical to fight in the condition that you are in, Abumi-san,' Shino said, mouth unseen behind his collar.

'Are both fighters ready?' Hayate asked, and didn't receive a response, so he started the match. Zaku immediately went on the offensive, trying to blast Shino away with a sound jutsu. This was negated by Shino when it was revealed that Shino was a bug clone. Zaku, immediately turned around to find Shino standing quietly behind him, and was about to try and hit him again before Shino spoke.

'It is over Abumi-san, if you attack me then you shall be overwhelmed by my bugs behind you from my clone, and if you attack them then I will be able to knock you out or kill you.' Zaku looked behind him to see that Shino was speaking the truth; there was a mass of chakra-leeching bugs behind him. Zaku sighed, before he spoke.

'And whoever said that I wasn't able to use both of my arms?' While he said this he unraveled the sling holding up his left arm and aimed it at the bugs, while he had his right arm pointed at Shino. Shino made no attempt to move and spoke quietly.

'I really wouldn't do that if I were you.'

Zaku ignored him and roared as he activated his sound jutsu, or at least tried to. Sakura and Team 10 gasped in horror as Zaku's arms imploded, while everyone else remained quiet. Shino explained to Zaku what he had done before Zaku blacked out from blood loss and sheer pain.

_"I really wish he hadn't done that, Zaku, his team and my Sound four are among the few that I trust completely,"_ Orochimaru thought, _"still, I can't blame him, it was a very good strategy."_

**Kankuro vs Tsurugi Misumi**

Naruto and the other contenders watched what seemed to be a game of dares between the Sand and Konoha nin. Eventually Misumi moved in and engage in a Taijutsu match with the puppeteer. After a few blows they paused, with their hands still connected in a guard. All of a sudden, Misumi seemed to flow in a rather disproportionate manner, as if something had changed with his skeletal structure.

'I'll have you know that I am able to dislocate every joint in my body, allowing me to restrain and defeat my opponent by snapping their neck,' Misumi said, now holding Kankuro in a choke hold while his legs were restraining Kankuro's limbs.

'I suggest that you surrender before I am forced to take your life. I will not hesitate to do so if necessary,' Misumi continued.

'I will not surrender,' Kankuro growled out furiously. Everyone apart from the Sand team looked concerned; it seemed that Kankuro would be the first to die in the preliminaries. Misumi just shrugged and proceeded to break Kankuro's neck, and hung on as Kankuro's head slumped. Oddly, after Kankuro's head was bowed, small pieces seemed to be falling from his face. Hayate stepped forward to announce the match.

'Due to his opponent-' He was interrupted as Kankuro straightened and showed that it wasn't Kankuro Misumi had killed, but his puppet. The puppet's head spun around and stared straight at Misumi, creeping the hell out of him, before metallic ropes and wires wrapped around his body, keeping him anchored to the puppet. The huge package fell off of the puppet's back, unwrapping itself to reveal that Kankuro had been in there the entire time and was controlling his puppet with chakra strings through the bandages. He then proceeded to use his puppet to break Misumi's bones one by one. After releasing him from the puppet, Hayate announced the match and medic-nin came and took Misumi off to the hospital.

_"Thank god I was hesitant in announcing the match earlier,"_ Hayate thought, knowing of the ribbing he could have received from such an outcome.

'Well that was a short match,' Sai said as he turned to face his team while leaning on the rail.

'Yes, although if Kankuro's opponent had used Ninjutsu, he would have been in trouble, as it takes time to unravel himself, and inside he was trapped, unable to move,' Ino contributed. Kanako smiled as she watched her team discuss the recent matches. It reminded her of her own time as a genin, although that was rather short.

Everyone's attention was grabbed as the match generator landed on two names. Both names knew the other, in fact they had been very good friends in the past, but that was in the past.

**Yamanaka Ino vs Haruno Sakura**

Both girls looked at each other along the first of the collective balconies before walking slowly down the stairs to the arena.

"I know that I need to concentrate on my training after the incident we had in the forest, but I don't know if I can fight Ino; after all she has been training with an S-rank ninja. But I can't just quit," Sakura thought worriedly as she made her way down. Ino just steeled herself for the beating she was about to inflict on a former friend

'Hajime!'

At the cry for them to begin, Sakura immediately created a few basic clones in an effort to try and distract Ino, but Ino had seen it coming from the third hand seal, by which time the type of jutsu could be told. She discarded the other clones, moving in behind Sakura with a seal-less shunshin, surprising many members of the crowd. However Sakura had managed to guess where Ino would shunshin to and quickly moved out of the way of her incoming strikes. Ino continued her barrage, moving forward and back into striking range very quickly. Eventually Ino got through, smashing her palm into Sakura's solar plexus, and the match was over very quickly after that, with Ino knocking Sakura out with the blunt end of a kunai.

Over on the balcony Asuma watched as Sakura was having the crap beaten out of her, and was quickly becoming rather ashamed at his laziness at being a sensei. He reflected over his time with his team so far and realized he had spent more time playing Shikamaru in shogi than training the other two members of his team. That was all well and fine for the genius, as he could adapt to pretty much all situations, but for the other two it was downright appalling. However there was the issue of Ino being on a team with two S-rank ninja and the last being an A-rank, but even so, anyone here could probably beat Sakura in a fight. He vowed that he would spend the time over the month before the Chunin Exam finals to train Sakura and Choji, both of whom he doubted would qualify for the event.

Team 7 just nodded their head; the fight had confirmed their thoughts, it was rather obvious in the light of the scene that Asuma hadn't been training his genin properly. And Kanako mused that if she had the chance, she could try and train Sakura over the next month, along with Haku and Kureno, as Naruto had told her that Sakura had realized she needed the training while in the Forest of Death. She would have the time to spare, as no one in her current team would be trained by her, as that would be showing favoritism in her books, instead they were going to be trained by members of the ANBU that had trained Naruto and Sai while the former was in the academy.

**Tenten vs Temari **

'Damn that is probably the worst match for Tenten,' Naruto said as he looked at the match generator. All the others nodded in agreement; Tenten relied on distance weapons and she was about to go up against a Wind user. Although if she managed to close the gap she had a good chance, as Temari, to their information, wasn't very good on close combat. Sure she could hold her own in Taijutsu, but she wouldn't sacrifice her fan for a Kenjutsu match.

Tenten walked down the stairs stolidly; from what she had seen from the Sand team and Temari from watching a battle of theirs while in the forest, Temari had a Wind affinity.

_"God dammit, this is going to be a tough battle,"_ she thought determinedly.

Temari knew little of Tenten's skill but was confident that she would win; with the exception of the team of Konoha's Deathly Angel and perhaps the primary Kumo team, the team from Suna was probably the strongest contender for becoming Chunins.

'Hajime!'

Tenten immediately jumped back, flinging kunai at Temari, hoping to catch her off guard. Temari in response quickly pulled her huge fan off of her back and used a wide range Wind jutsu to disrupt the flight of the sharp metal objects heading her way. This had the extra effect of buffeting Tenten into the wall of the room behind her. Tenten used the opportunity to shunshin behind Temari, succeeding in bypassing her main defense of Wind Justus in order to attack close in. Quickly unsealing a katana from one of her storage scrolls, Tenten immediately went on the attack, forcing Temari to dodge as best as she could, not wanting her fan, which was the conductor of many of her jutsus, to be shredded by the sharp blade. This went on for a while, with both Team 7 and 9 feeling confident of Tenten's victory now that she had closed the gap, before Temari managed to remake it by using her own shunshin to get out of trouble. Tenten, feeling less confident now, as she knew that her previous tactic wouldn't work twice, resealed her katana and pulled out two scrolls which she threw above her and began to spiral down and around her. She jumped up before unsealing weapons sealed with the spiraling scrolls and throwing them at Temari, but none of them managed to get through her Wind jutsu.

Eventually Temari had enough playing around and used a strong gust of Wind chakra to blow Tenten from her position, all the weapons in the air raining down harmlessly on the floor. She then used what looked to be a small tornado jutsu in which Tenten was captured and cut all over her body repeatedly. After about 30 seconds of Tenten by cut relentlessly by the jutsu, Temari ran out of chakra to continue and released it, at the same time moving under Tenten's rapidly falling body. Naruto seeing that Tenten was going to injure her spine unnecessarily on impact with Temari's fan, moved quickly, speeding over the railing and catching Tenten while standing on one foot on the end of the fan. Temari saw little more than a blur, before she saw Naruto setting down Tenten on the balcony with her team. Walking stiffly up the steps, everyone was discussing the match, not seeing Naruto's Sharingan activate accidentally in anger as he glared at Temari's back.

**Nara Shikamaru vs Tsuchi Kin**

'Well, this is going to be boring,' Naruto commented on the match up.

'Yeah, you don't say. Shika will win, but he'll somehow manage to do it in the most boring way possible,' Sai said, laughter clear in his voice. However the attention of Team 7 was grabbed when Haku and Kureno walked along the balcony towards them, having slipped into the room earlier after gaining permission to watch the prelims.

'What are you two doing here?' Kanako asked, taking her eyes off of her book briefly.

'Well we managed to get permission to watch from the Hokage, and the children are being watched over by Neko, Ibiki, and Anko,' Kureno said, before asking about the previous matches. Kanako then told them of the results and winning moves, before mentioning her plans for perhaps having Sakura train with them for the next month.

'If she wants to and is willing to train hard, then I have no problems with it sensei,' Haku said after hearing of it, but was slightly doubtful; after all this was a fangirl they were talking about. Kureno made a motion of agreement with her before they realized that Shikamaru's match was over, him having won by knocking Kin out on the wall behind her.

**Kiba vs Samui**

Both competitors grinned as they saw each other's names on the match generator; they had been looking forward to their spar against the other teams that had been present in Wave, and this was the first matching of any of the members of the three teams. Kiba and Samui jumped into the arena, and took their places opposite each other, knowing that the other had been training ever since their collective mission, and that either way it would be a tough match.

'Hajime!' The members of Team 7 & 8 and the primary Kumo team all leaned forward, eager to see the progress of their two friends.

Kiba leaped forward, Samui was caught slightly off guard by his new speed, but was able to dodge his tackle in time, and withdrew her tanto as Kiba turned back towards her. Kiba stared at her for a few moments, assessing his chances, before he sighed and backed off slightly.

'I had hoped that I would be able to reveal these later, but if I don't now, I will just be wasting my time against you,' Kiba said, pulling off a set of weights that had been hidden under his jacket and pants, causing a minor dust cloud. Samui's eyes widened slightly.

_"I was barely able to avoid him before, and he was wearing weights?"_

Kiba moved forward once more, this time slightly faster, forcing Samui to dive to one side. However, as he passed her, her tanto whipped out quickly, cutting into his right arm slightly. He considered the cut, before shrugging, deciding that it wasn't too serious. While he was doing so, Samui was focusing and trying channel her chakra in order to use a Lightning technique to try and slow Kiba down, but she hit an alternative idea; why not use Lightning chakra on herself and speed up to his level instead?

Determined to try this new idea Samui focused her Lightning nature chakra to her legs, knowing that if this worked, it would likely win her the match. As she stepped off towards the Inuzuka she accidentally released her chakra in a burst.

_"Shit, I lost focus!"_ She cursed before realizing that the side effect was she had effectively shot off at high speed towards the mystified boy. Samui smiled slightly; it seemed that her mistake had done what she was initially aiming for.

Naruto and the others watched as the match became a high speed Taijutsu battle, with only Naruto and Kanako working out what Samui had done had been a mistake, but one that she started to use as an actual technique.

_"Hm, if he masters use of that mistaken technique and speed herself up at the same time, she has the potential to be on the level of the Yondaime Raikage,"_ Kanako mused while watching the two.

Eventually Kiba withdrew and used Tsuga, the rotation drill technique that he had used against Karui in their spar in Wave. However as he sped towards Samui, he had no idea that Samui had swapped with a Rai-Bunshin that she had created due to the high-speed rotations of his technique. Thus when he impacted with her Bunshin, he got the shock of his life, quite literally. When he stopped spinning, he was unable to move at his normal speed, the Lightning chakra causing his limbs to seize up.

'Well it seems that Samui has outsmarted Kiba,' Naruto said as he turned back to his team, who nodded in agreement.

**Hyuuga Hinata vs Hyuuga Neji**

At the result that the match generator had given, many amongst the Konoha shinobi looked concerned; many, especially the higher ups, knew of Neji's hate for the main branch of the Hyuuga clan. Neji blamed Hinata for his father's death, due to him being sacrificed so that Hiashi, the current clan head and Neji's uncle, could live. He was also set against the main family due to their cursed seal that they forced upon the branch family, which allowed them to control the branch members, even allowing them to inflict pain without reprisal. Gai watched grimly as his student descended into the arena, knowing that Neji's anger would most likely get the better of him, as did all of the Konoha senseis, Naruto and Sai. Ino knew of Neji's hate for the main family, but didn't know how deep it ran, so was more concerned with the outcome of the match rather than Hinata's survival.

'Hajime!'

Right from the start, everyone who was watching closely could see Neji's anger beginning to release itself as he and Hinata matched each other blow for blow. Eventually Neji began to pull ahead as he forced Hinata on the defensive, raining down the deadly strikes of the Gentle Fist, while Hinata did her best to block them with her injuries forcing her to draw back several times. Several times Neji landed shots on her torso, causing Hinata to collapse to her knees while he began to belittle her, causing anger to flare among some of the spectators, mainly Kurenai, Kanako, Hiruzen, Naruto, Sai and Kureno. However he finally lost any pretense of calm as he witnessed Hinata slowly rise and challenge him once more, charging at her with the intent to kill, even though she was in no position to fight once more. As he charged her with his Byakugan blazing in anger, several blurs leapt over the balcony to intervene, as Hayate did the same. All of the spectators were treated to both Naruto and Sai having Neji at sword point, with Naruto's ninjatos crossing in front of his throat and Sai holding his leading hand while his tanto was above Neji's heart while Sai was crouching. The Jounin immediately moved forward to diffuse the situation, although Hayate and Kurenai, along with Kureno, were more concerned for Hinata's safety and recovery. The medic-nin had begun moving into the arena as soon as they saw Neji being detained.

'So even now the Main family gets preferential treatment,' Neji spat bitterly.

'She was wounded, and you were intending to kill her, even after you had humiliated her in front of the Hokage. But now you are just humiliating yourself by acting this way. Also did the thought ever occur to you that not once did she activate your Cage-Bird Seal, even though it was fully within her right as the heiress. You humiliated her, and she still insisted on fighting you properly, not resorting to that. She honored you, did you ever think of that?' Naruto asked, as his eyes started to blaze in anger.

'Due to Hyuuga Hinata being in critical condition, Hyuuga Neji is the victor,' Hayate announced after the Jounin-senseis had managed to convince Naruto and Sai to release Neji. The Jounin, Naruto and Sai remained in the arena as the match Generator started to flick through names once more, before landing on two that made Naruto grin.

**Uzumaki Naruto vs Niritou Jogu **

Naruto immediately turned to the Hokage as his opponent, a Taki Genin descended slowly into the arena.

'Hokage-sama, permission to release Ice?' The Hokage pondered the question before nodding in acquiescence, believing the time was right for Naruto to start revealing his special abilities. Naruto grinned as he turned to face his opponent, as did all the Konoha Jounin present apart from Asuma, as most had either been involved in training Naruto or had worked with him on a mission.

Naruto it seemed would be going up a very large genin who wielded a zanbatou a bit like Haku's,and was obviously more focused on pure strength rather than speed, shown by the pieces of samurai-like armor he wore. Naruto grinned, bringing down these sort was a very dear pastime to him, as he liked to show them why strength without speed was useless, although in the past, by the time they learned that, it was already too late.

'Hajime!'

'You may be Konoha's Deathly Angel, although I very much doubt that, but you are no match for my Kenjutsu, well not with those twigs anyway, and Water jutsu, which is the best for someone our age,' Jogu boasted, unaware of the line he had stepped across. There was one thing Naruto hated; people doubting him as being Konoha's Angel. And there was no doubt that that was what Jogu had just done.

'You will regret saying that,' Naruto vowed.

'Ha, try and make me!'

'Are you both ready to start?' Hayate asked in a bored voice; the Taki genin had just signed his own death warrant.

'You know that am I more than ready,' Naruto said, staring straight at Jogu, who just nodded; that stare was starting to unnerve him.

'Hajime!' Naruto and Jogu just continued to stare at one another, racking up the tension.

'You know, since your strengths are in Kenjutsu and Water jutsu, I will only fight you using those,' Naruto glared.

'Fine by me, but expect not to win,' Jogu chuckled, pulling the zanbatou off his back.

Naruto made no move to unsheathe his ninjatos, instead unsealing a black O-Katana from a Fuuinjutsu seal on his wrist.

'I don't think that you're worth the use of my ninjatos, you wouldn't last long if I did use them,' Naruto said, smiling thinly.

Jogu immediately charged in, anger overwhelming his common sense, with his zanbatou trailing across the ground, causing sparks to rise behind him. Naruto just stood calmly, but his mind was racing through potential attack motions that Jogu could use.

To the spectators they saw Jogu charging in, but the next moment they saw Jogu holding his face of to one side, zanbatou lying forgotten to one side, while Naruto had changed position, having turned his back to where Jogu had started the match from.

'What the hell happened?' Kiba explained, confused as to what had happened. Kanako having used her Sharingan to capture the moment before analyzing it in her mind, explained.

'It seems that Jogu went for a massive downward strike, putting all of his weight behind it. Then Naruto deflected it slightly to one side before trapping under his own sword,' Kanako noticed that all on the balcony were listening in to her explanation, 'he then kicked Jogu in the cheek, putting him off balance, before kicking the sword from his grasp.'

'He was able to do that all in one move?' Kiba asked, awed.

'There is a reason that some consider him a prodigy with the potential to be the greatest shinobi since the Rikudou Sennin. He is the youngest person in history to be a Bingo-Booker, and is the youngest person able to challenge two Kage-level shinobi at once,' Kanako elaborated, slightly sad that her otouto was a very good weapon when necessary.

'What? When did he do that?' Kankuro asked in utter shock, while all the other genin were awed.

'He once challenged Jiraiya and Tsunade of the Sennin to a duel: both of them against him. Only the Sandaime and the top ANBU Captains were permitted to watch, along with those who had trained him. Let's just say that he was able to knock the stuffing out of those two, although he did have to spend a while in the hospital afterwards,' Kanako said, smiling slightly at the memory of Jiraiya's face.

All of the genin returned to watching the match, it seemed that Naruto had waited patiently while Jogu recovered and the latter had decided to try his Water Ninjutsu instead, realizing that he was totally outclassed in Kenjutsu.

_"I didn't even see him move, one second he was still as I charged, the next I was over here,"_ Jogu thought, reaching for his flask on his belt. The flask was special to him as it had seals on it, which allowed it to be bigger on the inside, and was able to hold around 2.5 cubic metres of water.

Opening the flask, Jogu allowed the water to pour out before preparing for a Water jutsu.

'You will pay for that!' Jogu roared, while Naruto just stared at him coldly once more.

'Water Style: Water Bullets!'

Naruto watched passively as the Water bullets sped towards him, before holding one hand out and channeling chakra through it, the result being that the bullets were now rings, the centers having been blown out. Naruto then halted the rings and held them in midair with only his chakra, before closing his fist and reopening it.

Haku and Kureno, along with Ino were shocked out of their minds as the rings turned from Water to Ice; this was the first they had heard of it, and the others thought it was one of his classified bloodlines. What none of them knew was that Naruto's Senju bloodline was a lot more than that.

What ensued was a game of cat and mouse; Naruto was controlling the Ice rings using chakra strings, while Jogu was doing his best to dodge and avoid them, as he had realized that they were very sharp when one scratched his cheek. There was just one problem; due to him cancelling his speed training, Jogu didn't have the reflexes or the flexibility necessary to dodge, and eventually Naruto got him into a position where he would lose both arms if he didn't surrender.

He gave in.

As Naruto jumped back up onto the balcony he saw the questioning gazes of Ino, Haku and Kureno, and sighed; he knew he would have had to deal with this sooner or later.

'What was that?' Haku asked fiercely.

'Later,' Naruto replied, delaying his answer.

**Gaia vs Rock Lee**

'Oh this is going to be a tough one for both sides,' Naruto whistled.

'Obviously you don't know what Gaia is capable of,' Temari remarked from the side.

'Oh I know very well what Gaia is capable of, I had a mission in Suna two years ago, and I was there when she crushed several of her friends into nothing more than blood. But the thing is, is that she has a reactive Ultimate Defense, so what happens when her opponent is faster than the defense? She won't being getting through this without a scratch. It seems that it is time for her know the pain of her first injuries,' Naruto commented, ignoring the outrage coming from the Suna shinobi about him being on a mission there a few years ago.

'If there is one thing Lee is, it's fast,' Sai added nodding.

'We should be quiet, this match will be legendary,' Naruto said, leaning forward after pulling his hood up and discreetly activating his Sharingan.

'I look forward to fighting against a shinobi of such great strength,' Lee declared as he faced Gaia, who was facing him quietly, looking more annoyed than anything else.

'Hajime!'

Before Lee could do anything, Gaia removed the stopper from her gourd, and sand poured out. Over on the balcony Naruto just nodded; that action just proved his thoughts: Gaia relied on her sand defense too much.

Lee quickly moved forward, at speed that were the fastest of the genin present, minus Naruto, Sai and perhaps Ino.

'Leaf Hurricane!'

Lee's leg slammed into Gaia's sand defense, unable to get through and forcing Lee on the defensive, pulling out a kunai and slicing through the sand trying to smother him before he had to retreat. Temari grinned; it seemed that Gaia had this in hand, and Naruto was wrong. But she didn't know of the weights that Lee wore.

As Lee managed to escape from being crushed by Gaia's sand, he landed on the monument at the far end of the room, and he stayed before Gai spoke up from his position on the balcony.

'Lee! Take them off!'

'But Sensei, you said that the condition was only when I was protecting those very important to me or if it was necessary for a mission!' Lee objected.

'This time I'll make an exception!'

Lee grinned slowly, before sitting down and pulling down his orange ankle-warmers to reveal a pair of leg weights, and taking them off.

Everyone apart from Lee, Gai, Kanako, Naruto, Sai, Neji, Tenten and Ino were aghast; this was his secret weapon?

'Oh come on! There is no way that is going to help!' Temari said, frustrated by the idiocy of this competitor.

'Ah that is better. You should feel honored, the only ones to challenge me at our age when I take these off are Naruto, Sai, Neji and now you,' Lee declared before dropping the weights.

Everyone was awed out of their minds when the weights impacted with the floor; they literally tore through an inch and a half of concrete before coming to a stop, and causing a massive dust cloud, and cracks to spider-web for metres around the impact. The Hokage and many of the Jounin immediately looked at Gai as if he was insane before returning to the match, eager to see how this was equalize the fight.

Gaia just glared at Lee, undisturbed by the amount of weights Lee had been wearing, before her eyes widened as Lee disappeared to all but Team 7, Team 9 and the Jounin and Hokage. He reappeared behind Gaia, punching through his defense due to the speed he now possessed before disappearing once more, each time reappearing to punch or kick his way through the sand.

Gaia was very, very scared; this was the fastest person she had ever faced, and now it looked like her sand wouldn't be able to keep up. Up on the balcony Kankuro, Temari and Baki were having the same sort of thoughts.

Eventually Lee got through and was able to scratch Gaia on the cheek, causing the Suna team to gasp in surprise that Gaia had finally been touched in battle. Even though it looked like Lee now had a chance, as he was too fast for Gaia, Gaia revealed that she was wearing sand armor, and that in actuality, she hadn't been touched; Lee had just scratched the armor.

'My kami! Does this girl have any weaknesses?' Kiba shouted in exasperation.

_"Kid, if only you knew, that armor is one big weak spot, due to the amount of chakra that Gaia has to use to keep it on,"_ Kankuro reflected, disturbed that she had resorted to the armor.

During the course of the match, everyone was awed at some point or another due to the feats of the two shinobi in front of them. Lee used the Primary Lotus in order to try and bring Gaia down, but both Naruto and Kanako realized it was useless when they saw Gaia swap with a hollow sand clone just in time. This caused Lee to destroy his muscles, while Gaia bypassed his technique, and eventually paid him back in pain, driving Naruto close to intervening with the match. Then everyone was awed when Lee managed to open the first five celestial chakra gates through sheer effort, a feat thought impossible, and then proceeded to beat Gaia around the arena before activating the Hidden Lotus. This time he caught Gaia but she managed to soften her fall by turning her gourd itself into sand, even though she still bore the brunt of the impact, being sent through the concrete floor several feet thick. As such Gaia was still able to send her sand after Lee while she healed, while Lee was unable to move, his muscles having shredded themselves during the technique, and she was able to crush his left leg and arm. Then Naruto and Gai intervened, Gai stopping her from completely crushing his student, while Naruto stopped her and threatened her that if she didn't stop, he would never heal Shukaku. Gaia just froze before getting up and shunshining back to the balcony.

_"This is odd, it seems that he is suggesting that there is something wrong with Shukaku, as if he shouldn't be like this, but he has always been this way, so how would he know the difference, how could he even come to that conclusion? The only ones that would know would be the Bijuu, unless… NO! He is a Jinchuuriki!"_ Gaia thought franticly, ignoring the remarks of her sister. She realized that if anyone would be able to help her, he would, after all it sounded like he was on good terms with his Bijuu, and he had offered to fix her seal for her, did he not?

Naruto watched as Omoi and Yugito quickly and efficiently demolished their opponents, teammates of Jogu from Taki. He wasn't really paying attention, thinking over the match between Gaia and Lee, and the possible consequences. After all, he had interfered in all three matches of Team 9, and even he couldn't get away with that without consequences, and at the same time he would have to tell the Hokage about Haku's and Kureno's curiosity involving his bloodline and heritage; better they hear from him than others. Although on the plus side, he could stop living a lie to his own village in just over a month, along with the fact that the finals were going to be exciting; the Sandaime had something special planned for an exhibition of his skills.

As such he stayed behind to talk with the Sandaime along with his team, Kureno and Haku as he had told Kanako earlier about their interest, and she had decided that it was probably time for Ino to learn as well.

'Hokage-sama, I and the others of my team, including the two attachés, would like to speak to you privately in your office concerning my heritage and bloodlines,' Naruto said, kneeling. Hiruzen was silent before responding.

'Very well, let us go,' and with that the seven of them shunshined into his office.


	7. Chapter 7:Heritage Revealed and Plans

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fruits Basket

Note: There was a bit of irritation about the comment of Lee and Ino having a relatively close speed comparison. I want to say that I apologise for making it unclear, but Ino has a similar speed to Lee when he has his weights on, but as soon as he takes them off, she can't touch him.

'All right, what is this about Naruto?' Hiruzen asked as he seated himself behind his desk.

'Jiji, I asked for a private audience,' Naruto said, refusing to say anything until he knew that they were alone.

'Ah yes, I forgot,' Hiruzen said, chuckling at Naruto's stubbornness, before sending out his personal ANBU that were within the room. Naruto waited until they were all out, before putting his strongest privacy barrier on the door, sealing off the people inside the room.

'Okay, Jiji, can you tell Ino, Haku and Kureno of my true heritage, bloodlines, burden, all of it, as I would probably go off on a tangent or something,' Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. Kanako grinned, it seemed that Naruto was trying to get the Hokage to explain everything. Hiruzen sighed and puffed on his pipe several times before beginning to explain Naruto's heritage to the three curious genin, as that was the key to the other two subjects.

Half an hour later Ino was in complete and utter shock that she was on a team with the person closest to being classified as Konoha's prince due to his heritage, strength and pure wealth. However this was tinged by anger as she recalled the Hokage's mention of the atrocities that Naruto suffered as a child. It was then that Ino would come up with a name that Naruto would be labeled as by Konoha historians and writers after his death: "The Fallen Lord".

Haku and Kureno meanwhile were struck by the same thing, but also by the pure strength of Naruto's bloodlines; hell, even if he relied on them overly much, he would still be one of the strongest ninjas alive.

'Well since you are here Naruto, I have an assignment for you,' Hiruzen said, moving on to other matters.

'Which is?' Naruto asked, not that upset that he wouldn't be able to train over the month.

'I need you to watch Sabaku no Gaia, as she is a Jinchuuriki, but Suna never notified us of this, so something is off,' Hiruzen said, eyes narrowing slightly.

'Consider it done,' Naruto said. To be honest he had expected it to be something outside of the village, so he was rather happy with this; he would be able to train after all.

'Other than that, there is nothing else, so you can work out training schedules and so on whenever you wish, dismissed,' Hiruzen said, before returning to his paperwork.

* * *

Outside the tower

'Alright, I have asked around and there are more than enough people interested in training you two for the month,' Kanako said, pointing at Ino and Sai.

'Ne, Sensei, when do we receive notice of who we are facing in our matches?' Ino asked, as none of them had received any indication of their future opponents.

'What happens is that you train for three weeks to anticipate all potential opponents, then you receive the match line up a week before the finals, allowing you to plan strategy for each of them. However it goes without saying that this will depend on the outcome on each match, especially in the earlier rounds,' Kanako said, glad that someone had asked. 'All right, Ino, Uzuki Yugao and Mitarashi Anko have both expressed interest in training you. You can meet them in training ground 7. Sai, both Gai and Hayate are waiting for you in training ground 13. And Naruto, both Yamato and Jiraiya will be waiting for you in training ground 43 if you wish to train with them.'

All three genin nodded before racing off, and Kanako turned to Haku and Kureno, who were still trying to deal with the revelation of Naruto's heritage.

'Hey, you two, snap out of it; we need to find pinky,' Kanako said, snapping her fingers in front of their faces.

* * *

With Sakura

Sakura was wandering around, trying to find one of the Jounin-senseis, as she had finally been cured of the fangirlism that she had shown for so long.

'Ah, we've found her, hey Sakura!' Sakura turned to see Hatake Kanako, the Jounin-sensei of Team 7, coming towards her.

'Sakura, I have seen that you have finally stopped being a fangirl, so we are here to ask if you want to train with us over the month?' Kanako said, eye-smiling at the look on Sakura's face.

'You mean that you will really train me?' Sakura asked eagerly; it was perfect, she had just been looking for this, and voila. Kanako nodded, seeing how eager Sakura was for proper training.

Five minutes later Kanako and the two attachés of Team 7 set off with the pink-haired genin in tow.

* * *

With Ino

The blonde walked into training ground 7 cautiously; she had heard of Anko and her antics from both Naruto and Sai, so it was safe to say that she was wary of any traps that she might have set up.

All of a sudden, kunai came shooting at her from either side, catching her in the crossfire. Ino was already used to this however, due to Naruto's kunai launcher seals, so she simply shunshined straight to the center of the training ground, where it seemed that Yugao was waiting.

'Let me guess, Anko tried to ambush you as you walked into the training ground?' She asked, knowing of the woman's hobbies, having been in ANBU with her.

'Yes, Yugao-sensei,' Ino said, before turning and facing back towards the entrance, where she saw that Anko had come out and was walking towards the two of them, annoyed that Ino had escaped.

'Well, the two of us have requested to train you for the Chunin Exam finals. With me we shall be working on your Kenjutsu, as you simply need more experience, while Anko will be training you in traps and tactical thinking, although I think she also has something special to give you,' Yugao said, motioning towards Ino's chokuto at the start.

'Yep, you better be ready girl, or otherwise this is going to hurt,' Anko said, coming up to the two of them.

'Oh, and Ino, we have something to tell you concerning the finals and Naruto; you see, the Hokage has something special planned, that will involve Naruto going up against the specialists of each field in Konoha. It will be a message to those attending. Now Hayate, Kanako, Sai and I are going to be going up against him in Kenjutsu, and we would like you to join us in that match, but the only way is if we convince Hokage-sama that you're approaching the level of a Kenjutsu master,' Yugao said, cocking her head to one side as she waited for Ino's answer.

* * *

With Sai

Sai sighed as he walked to training ground 13; he knew that training with Gai and Hayate would be worth it, but he wasn't sure if he could stomach Gai's attitude. Then again, if Gai was serious, then that would be creepy, but it was likely that he was, after all, he had just had his protégé get the crap beaten out of him. That and he knew that Hayate would be driving him into the ground with his Kenjutsu due to the Hokage's meddling.

Still, he did need to improve those along with his close combat Ninjutsu, so he was reasonably happy.

* * *

With Naruto

'Hey Ero-sennin!' Naruto shouted cheerfully as he walked into training ground 43 to see Jiraiya sitting peacefully on a tree stump.

'God dammit gaki! Will you stop calling me that!' Jiraiya said, ruining afore mentioned peace and quiet.

'Not until you stop writing those perverted books,' Naruto said, remembering the first time Kanako had revealed what was in the damn things, and shivered.

'Anyway, as Yamato is on a mission for the first week, I shall be your instructor for this week, then he shall have you the week after to help you with your Mokuton, then the week after that you shall have a teacher that you haven't seen for some time,' Jiraiya said, knowing that when Naruto learned who this teacher was, he would burst with happiness.

_"Someone I haven't seen for a long time, huh, no, no, no, no…."_ Naruto thought, trying to work the identity of the mysterious teacher out.

'Oh, no way! Are you telling me I can meet Itachi again?' Naruto shouted, absolutely demanding to know if the teacher was his nii-san.

Jiraiya just nodded silently, knowing and awaiting Naruto's reaction.

'Yes! Awesome! Nii-san is coming back!' Naruto shouted, jumping in glee.

'Alright!' Jiraiya tried to get Naruto back on topic, but was ignored, so he repeated it, and thankfully Naruto listened this time.

'Okay, I know you're excited to meet him once more, but focus on the present, brat. I shall be teaching you one of your father's signature techniques- the Rasengan. I shall also be watching over you while you and Kyare train in using her chakra,' Jiraiya said, ignoring Naruto's shouts at being called a brat. He then passed him a bunch of balloons, confusing Naruto.

'Let's get started.'

* * *

Two Weeks Later

Jiraiya had to say it: Naruto was a prodigy of the likes that he had never seen before. The brat had managed to get Rasengan down almost in the space of a week, and was now able to do it one-handed, and he hadn't even used Kage Bunshin until after he had formed it on his own 25 times in a row. He had moved on to training Yamato a week ago, and the two had combined notes on various jutsus they could use or invent with Mokuton, and from what Hiruzen said when he had watched a training session between the two was that Naruto's skills with Mokuton, although nowhere near that of the Shodaime, was rapidly approaching that sort of level. Since then he had been focusing on his Ice Release as well, and had come to the conclusion that he should be able to learn Sand Release, as it should be a mixture of Wind and Earth chakra, and had started to try and activate that as well. At the moment the two of them, accompanied by Yamato, were heading towards the meeting point that the Hokage had arranged for them to meet Itachi and Kisame, who they had learned was Itachi's partner in Akatsuki. There they were to stay with Naruto, as although they knew that Itachi could be trusted, they weren't too sure about Kisame. At the same time Orochimaru would be meeting with Jiraiya, trading information with him from his spy network.

* * *

Naruto reflected on his mission while he was walking alongside Jiraiya and Yamato-nii-san. There was only one occasion where he had had to step in and stop Gaia causing damage to Konoha shinobi, as she spent most of the time in the Suna team's rooms, or simply didn't bother with killing those around her. According to the clone he had had following her, that one time, she was almost forced to try and kill Lee in his hospital bed.

_Flashback_

Clone Naruto tailed Gaia as she walked through Konoha's streets alone, heading west, towards either the academy or the hospital, for reasons that the clone was unable to identify, but due to the stiff posture of his target, he assumed it wasn't good.

Naruto looked up from his hand when he felt his clone dispel, absorbing the information quickly before calling to Ero-sennin and rushing off, knowing that he would have to move quickly in order to reach Gaia before she disappeared. Shunshining to the center of the village, Naruto expanded his sensor range towards to the general location that his clone had been in, focusing on finding Gaia's chakra.

_"Hm, it seems that she is moving towards the hospital. What is there for her? Perhaps she needs to take medication; then again Lee is there, may- Oh shit! Lee!"_ Naruto thought, speeding straight to the hospital over the rooftops.

Naruto crashed through the window as Gaia was about to take the stopper out of her gourd, stopping her motions and accidentally distracting her long enough for Shikamaru, who had just walked in the door, to catch her in his shadow possession jutsu.

'What are you two doing?' Gaia asked, her voice full of anger.

'Stopping you from killing an unarmed and injured shinobi,' Shikamaru said from behind her.

'But he is a failure, why would you protect him,' Gaia asked, having been brought up told that only the best deserve to live.

'If you try and cause injury or harm to any Konoha shinobi, then I will detain you or, if necessary, kill you,' Naruto said, eyes promising that he would hold himself to that statement. Gaia just cocked her head curiously before casually breaking out of Shikamaru's jutsu and walking out of the room. Naruto just sighed before creating a Kage Bunshin to trail her once more, and shunshining back to training ground 43.

_End Flashback_

Naruto was thankful that Gaia had not pressed the issue an forced him to fight, as it would have caused destruction and injuries to many that were in the building.

'Ita-nii-san!' Naruto shouted as he caught sight of the elder Uchiha, causing sniggers to erupt from Kisame, Orochimaru and Jiraiya.

_"Haha, the Uchiha prodigy, a fierce missing-nin and feared S-rank called, called Ita-nii-san!"_ Kisame laughed mentally, he would never let Itachi hear the end of this.

Itachi sighed, knowing that it was going to be worse if they stayed on the topic of Naruto's nicknames, and asked Naruto about how his progress in the Chunin Exams was going. So Naruto explained about the first two exams and then the preliminaries, disturbing Itachi and Kisame when he mentioned the insanity of the Ichibi Jinchuuriki.

_"Hm, this may have to be reported to Yokuga,"_ Kisame thought, eyes narrowing slightly.

Itachi, in response told him of the various members of Akatsuki, but whenever Jiraiya asked of their location, he immediately steered away from answering the question.

In truth Naruto and Itachi didn't have much to talk about, having exchanged mail ever since he left via Itachi's summons, and so Kisame and Naruto decided that they would have a low-level Kenjutsu spar to pass the time, as Jiraiya and Orochimaru hadn't even started to exchange information. After the first few minutes of watching the two fling their weight at one another, both Sennin departed to exchange it, leaving Itachi and Yamato to watch over the two Kenjutsu masters.

* * *

With the Sennin

'Alright, Jiraiya, this is critical information, but I believe that recently someone high up in Oto has been going behind my back. I know that it has something to do with the Chunin Exam finals, and Suna, along with rumors or ROOT being involved, so the logical conclusion is that of invasion. I am proposing that we prepare for this, but let it happen, as it will allow us to unearth the traitor while also dealing a critical blow to their forces and perhaps ROOT,' Orochimaru said after they had exchanged cursory information on Kurei.

'Are you saying what I think you're saying?' Jiraiya said, knowing that the Sandaime had to know of this information ASAP.

'Yes, it means that if there is an upcoming war, Konoha will be attacked by three different shinobi organizations,' Orochimaru said as he looked across the land outside of the village.

'Shit, this could be the start of the Fourth Shinobi War,' Jiraiya said, shaking his head.

'Yeah, anyway we should get back to the others. I'll try and figure out what the traitor is trying to do, but I may not be able to,' Orochimaru said, 'but it will be interesting watching Itachi train Naruto in his Sharingan.'

* * *

With Naruto, Itachi, Kisame and Yamato

Meanwhile, as the two Sennin talked, Naruto was having the time of his life; he was facing a strong Kenjutsu master, with an oddly sentient and flexible sword. It was a very interesting challenge, and he immediately brought out his ninjatos, knowing that Kisame was often regarded as the strongest of the former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. And although he had the advantage in speed, running circles around Kisame, the fact that Samehada could bend and react in time was pissing him off, and so he was stuck constantly attacking. He couldn't get past Samehada, but he was so fast that Kisame couldn't attack him, so it became a battle of endurance; who could last longer under the pressure before they made a mistake.

Itachi, seeing that the two sword masters were getting nowhere, eventually intervened, calling a stop to the spar before Naruto tired himself out too much for their training.

'All right, that's enough you two, Naruto needs enough energy to spar,' Itachi said, stopping the two.

They stopped for a short break before Itachi and Naruto began training, during which the two Sennin returned. They relaxed for a while before Naruto and Itachi stood and walked a few metres away. Itachi then turned to Naruto and activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.

'Tsukynomi'

The next thing Naruto knew, he was in what seemed to be a different reality; a red sky, and red moon, and the colors of the surroundings seemed to be inverted from what they normally should be. And then there was the small matter that he was chained to a cross, unable to move his legs or arms. Before he could say anything Itachi appeared in front of him.

'Naruto. I am sorry,' was all he said before he faded from Naruto's vision. Before Naruto could say anything he faded from the world of Tsukynomi himself. He began screaming as his mind was assaulted by images of himself killing those he cared about; killing Ino, Sai, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Hiruzen, Anko, Yugito, and all the other friends he had made throughout his life. His sanity lasted through him killing his friends, so Itachi, who was watching him from outside in the Tsukynomi, was forced to make him go through it once more, this time each killing more grotesque than the last. It was when he was going through killing Kanako for the third time that he finally snapped, and Itachi saw that he had activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.

Itachi immediately stopped the Genjutsu torture, bringing Naruto back out of the nightmares, and hugged him as he began weeping. Naruto, feeling Itachi hugging him, immediately backed off.

'What? You're not dead? Is this another way for the nightmares to trick me?' Naruto asked, muttering the last part.

'No, this is the real me, and I apologize for what I just put you through, but it was necessary to activate your Mangekyo Sharingan. I beg for your forgiveness for forcing this upon you,' Itachi said, knowing how hurt Naruto must be. He had put images in his mind of him killing what he considered as his family, and although it was necessary, his sanity might never fully recover. It was why he never forced Sasuke through the same thing to make him stronger; there was no telling how he might react, and the fact that he was treated as if he was a prince didn't help either.

Itachi just held Naruto as he cried. No one apart from his siblings and Sai knew, but his greatest fear was not being able to save members of his surrogate family, or accidentally doing something to cause their deaths.

Naruto eventually came to the conclusion that it wasn't real, locking away the memories of the Genjutsu into a tightly sealed corner of his mind, where he vowed to never again visit.

'You said that it was necessary to unlock the Mangekyo Sharingan, right?' Naruto asked tentatively after he had finished crying.

'Yes, which means that you have now accomplished something which very few Uchihas have ever achieved,' Itachi said.

'So does it look like yours, or is it something different?' Naruto asked, a gleam of excitement now in his eyes.

'Well, yours looks very different from what many would consider normal, as the majority of them seem to be a repeated pattern around a particular point, like the pupil, but that may be to the fact that you are related to all three branches of the Rikudou Sennin. It seems to be in two concentric circles; the first containing a pattern of black fames, and the inner circle containing a pattern of two diamonds, one vertical and one horizontal, and both focused on the pupil,' Itachi said, struck by the vividness of Naruto's Mangekyo. Naruto gained a rather accurate description from Itachi's words and had reached a conclusion.

'That sounds so cool!'

'Yes, it seems that with each ring as it were, the background color and primary color changes; with the outer ring of flames, that background is red, and the flames black, but in the inner circle, you have a black background with red diamonds.' Itachi said, unsure of what to make of the unusualness of Naruto's Mangekyo Sharingan.

_"Oh well, I shall only bring it up if someone asks or it has unique abilities, or stops Naruto from using certain abilities,"_ Itachi thought, thinking of Shisui's Mangekyo, and how it allowed him to sway people to his will.

'Well, as we still have around 71 and a half hours in here, what do you think about training with it? It's also a bonus, because when we train in here, your eyes won't deteriorate,' Itachi said, standing up.

'Wait, what do you mean deteriorate?' Naruto asked, this being the first time he had heard of it.

'Such power is the offering that the Mangekyo Sharingan gives us, but there must be an equalizing price for such power, and that is that, over time and through use, we slowly lose the ability to see,' Itachi sighed.

'Well, that sucks,' Naruto pouted, but expected it; after all, there are always downsides.

'Of course, it can be negated by gaining the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan,' Itachi mentioned as an afterthought.

'And how does one gain that?' Naruto asked, not really sure if he actually wanted to know.

'Two Mangekyo users must swap their eyes, the closer the blood relation the better, but it mentioned in the Naka shrine that a substitute that could be just as good were the eyes of one that you feel emotionally close with,' Itachi said, revealing his idea to Naruto.

'So we're going to swap eyes now that I have the Mangekyo Sharingan?' Naruto asked; he liked his new eyes.

'Oh Kami no, we shall wait until after the Chunin Exam finals, by which time you should have gained some experience using them,' Itachi said, before telling Naruto to follow him.

* * *

The two of them walked deeper into Naruto's mindscape until they finally came to the area that Naruto had labeled as 'Kyare's Prison', not that it looked much like a prison anymore. There was simply a large mansion on a hill, surrounded by lakes and grasslands, and both Kushina and Kyare were able to move freely through Naruto's mindscape. The prison was now on Kyare, in the form of a seal on her back, so she could now interact with her mindscape surroundings. The knowledge that she had gained as a Bijuu, she had organized into tomes for Kushina and Naruto to read if they wished. Speaking of Kushina, she didn't look too happy.

'ITACHI! YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER IMBECILE! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!' Kushina roared as she stalked over to Itachi and Naruto angrily before beginning to beat the crap out of the older Uchiha. This went on for a while before Naruto, who was beginning to fear for his nii-san's life, managed to calm her down.

'Kaa-chan, he was just trying to help me prepare for the path ahead,' Naruto started.

'Don't even get me started on his reasons for doing that to you! He almost cost you your sanity!' Kushina seemed to have worked herself up.

'Could you let me go now Kushina-senpai?' Itachi asked quietly from one side; he knew that quiet would work; well it had with his mother Mikoto anyway.

'Fine! But next time you do something as idiotic as what you just did, you'd better warn me first or you will not live to tell the tale,' Kushina threatened before walking off angrily.

'Well, that went well,' Naruto said sarcastically as she walked away.

* * *

Outside in the Real World

All of the others watched interestedly as Itachi and Naruto both fell into a trance for a second, then Naruto collapsed to the ground. Itachi then dusted himself down before picking up the sleeping Naruto.

'What was that about?' Yamato asked, gesturing to the sleeping boy.

'Well, we had to activate his Mangekyo Sharingan, and then proceeded to train in it for 72 hours straight as it doesn't deteriorate his eyesight while in Tsukynomi,' Itachi said, shocking the others. He then turned to Jiraiya and handed him a sealed note.

'This contains a report on what abilities Naruto gained from the Mangekyo, and how strong they are. Only the Hokage is to see this, if any one else does, apart from Kanako, then I will be after your head,' Itachi said, scaring the shit out of the man in front of him.

_"I need to get my hands on that info, but I won't be able to do it now,"_ Kisame thought, eyeing the note out of the corner of his eye.

Orochimaru began talking with Itachi about the appearance of Naruto's Mangekyo; he found the different appearances in the Mangekyo Sharingan to be fascinating, after all, why would they change? It was mystifying. Thankfully Itachi was used to this kind of behavior from the Snake Sennin, or he would have thought he was trying to gain information that he shouldn't have.

* * *

At the Hokage's Tower, One and half hours later

Hiruzen was shocked as he read over Itachi's report to him while Naruto, Yamato and Jiraiya waited for him to finish.

_Hokage-sama_

_These are the results of Naruto awakening his Mangekyo Sharingan:_

_1. Fire Affinity-though not as strong as his other ones_

_2. Increased Chakra Control_

_3. Boost in Intelligence and Strategic Thinking-may rival that of Shikaku_

_4. Ability to Use Amaterasu-unprecedented control over flames_

_5. Ability to use a fusion of Tsukynomi and Shisui's Kotoamatsukami, able to both torture and persuade- able to control someone to kill another person while they are still in Tsukynomi, like a puppet._

_6. Has an unprecedented Susanoo that has the form of an orb of ghostly flames-Able to create arms of flames that can attack on their own or form weapons to attack on command._

_Thus this makes Naruto's Mangekyo Sharingan abilities unique, even among those that have achieved the Mangekyo Sharingan, and if he masters these abilities then he would beat any other Mangekyo-bearing Uchiha, perhaps even Madara, if he were still alive. _

_Uchiha Itachi, Shinobi of Konohagakure_

Hiruzen put the note down slowly in shock; Naruto just never stopped surprising everyone. If he had gained a Fire affinity, then the chakra natures he had were almost innumerable; he might be able to combine it into Lava Release and Boil Release, at least. In fact, he might just be able to achieve every single chakra nature. Hiruzen sighed again.

'Naruto, after the three of you leave, I want you to train your newly gained Fire affinity, as I know that you don't know many jutsu for that, and it is pretty weak. I also want you to try and determine if you can combine it into other chakra natures, if you can't then it doesn't really matter,' Hiruzen said, before motioning for them to leave quietly. The three shinobi walked out, determined and eager to try the new abilities granted to Naruto.

* * *

With Kanako, Haku, Kureno and Sakura

Kanako smiled slightly as she watched Haku, Kureno and Sakura train in kunai balancing along with Kurenai, who had been getting rather bored with nothing to do. All three had become very good with chakra control, with Haku and Sakura training in Medical Ninjutsu, and Sakura and Kureno training in Genjutsu. All three had been training in their chakra natures, with Sakura being a Fire nature and Kureno being a Water nature, but only Haku really focused on it, the others focusing on their specific fields more. Sakura's hair had darkened slightly from what it was before, and was now shoulder length. She was now wearing a dark grey vest with her dress becoming a dark blue. She had medical bandages wrapped around her left bicep, and wore a medical kit on her right hip. She also had a tanto strapped to her lower back, ready to draw, and had black fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back.

'All right you three, it's time for you to go for another lap,' Kanako called, causing the trio to set their kunai before sprinting off. They would run out of the training ground before running round the block of the nearest five training grounds. All in all it was about 12 kilometers.

'Well, if they were an actual team, they would be very good; Kureno would do support, Haku would have to take close, even though he wouldn't like it, and Sakura can do both close and support with her Medical Ninjutsu and recreation of Tsunade's strength,' Kurenai remarked.

'Yes, although they are more of a support or skirmisher team than frontline combat,' Kanako said.

'They don't have the close combat focus necessary like the actual Team 7,' Kurenai agreed, thinking of Team 7's focus on Ninjutsu, Kenjutsu and Taijutsu.

'To be honest, I am actually thinking of listing that team as a First Response Team. They cover all the various shinobi disciplines, work well together, and can adapt to almost any situation because of it,' Kanako said, not sure if it was the right decision.

'Hm, they are well equipped for it, but are they ready? Because if they aren't, they'll end up dead, Naruto there or not,' Kurenai cautioned.

* * *

With Ino

Ino swore loudly as she dodged a set of kunai forcing her to move back in range of Yugao's katana within the small forest clearing in training ground 7. If she didn't manage to put some range in between her and Yugao, then she was going to lose this spar, again. Yugao definitely held the upper hand in their clashes due to her experience and the greater reach offered by her sword compared to Ino's chokuto. Add to that the fact that Anko was out there somewhere herding her back to the afore mentioned Kenjutsu master, and it was almost impossible for her to escape from the two of them in order to complete her current exercise, and she only had half an hour left on the clock.

Ino deflected Yugao's downward strike before kicking her away and shunshining out of the clearing, feeling a bit apprehensive.

_"That opening to Yugao-sensei's attack was a little too obvious; am I walking into a trap?" _

Ino quickly and silently approached the area where her package should be, assessing the situation, before realizing that no matter which way she approached the damn thing, she would have to deal with a whole load of traps that she didn't have time for. Considering the problem, she never noticed Anko dangling from the branch above her and slowly reaching down with a kunai.

_"Well I could try and drop in from above but- oh shit!" _Ino thought before she felt the cold metal of a kunai touch her neck.

'Do you give up girly?' Anko's voice sounded in her ear.

'Yes,' Ino huffed; annoyed that she had lost again.

'Well, you did better this time,' Anko started as Yugao jumped down beside her, 'you avoided capture for quite some time, and led us on a merry chase, and if you had had teammates, then you definitely would have completed the exercise. So you did reasonably well with the resources you had,' Anko said, grinning at the look of surprise on Ino's face.

'And your Kenjutsu should be up to scratch for the event, especially as you will be working with a team,' Yugao commented.

'But for the past 2 weeks you've been saying that I was pathetic,' Ino retorted.

'Ah, but we were comparing you to us, which isn't exactly fair, in order to get you to keep working hard. In reality you're probably the fourth or fifth most capable person in the exams,' Yugao shrugged.

'Anyway, the next week will be your own time to practice, so we won't be here anymore, and you should receive the match lineup tonight, so make sure to do us proud girly,' Anko said, before she and Yugao shunshined away.

* * *

With Sai

Sai winced as he blocked another of Gai's punches; the man was a Taijutsu powerhouse, and he already had bruises on the majority of his arms. Hayate watched from one side as Gai blurred before reappearing, throwing Sai by his leg into a nearby tree.

'Remember that the style you are meant to be using is very lithe and fast, dancing around their attacks before attacking yourself,' Gai instructed seriously as Sai stood up from the collision. Gai was always very serious when he was instructing a person in Taijutsu, as it was his forte, and if they came to him, then they were serious about their training.

'Alright, I think that's enough Taijutsu for now Gai. Sai, take a break for fifteen minutes and then we shall get started on your Kenjutsu practice for today,' Hayate spoke up, and Gai immediately rushed off in the direction of the Konoha hospital to watch over his student.

* * *

That Evening- 5:30

'Naruto, the Hokage has asked for all senior Jounin, ANBU Captains and Clan Heads, along with you and Sai to attend a meeting in his office immediately,' Kanako's voice pierced through the door of his apartment where he was reading at the moment.

'Okay, I will be there shortly,' he replied, before getting up and putting on his equipment, most of which he had been using earlier that day.

Naruto and his teachers had been focusing primarily on him learning Fire techniques rather than combining it with his other affinities, although it was likely that it could be possible, as one of the five Kage Bunshins he had assigned to the task had managed to get a hint of Lava Release. But he and about two hundred Kage Bunshin had spent the majority of their time training in eight basic Fire techniques to give him a good base. After the day both Jiraiya and Yamato said that they would be unable to train Naruto further as the final week of preparation was for private training, and they had other errands to do which would occupy their time.

Naruto shunshined outside of the Hokage's Tower, his hood over his head, although that identified him as Konoha's Deathly Angel, and walked up through the tower, ignoring the friendly acclamations of ninja he didn't know. Hell, most of them just wanted to boast they had him as a friend, it was like he was a valuable possession.

He greeted the secretary outside of the Hokage's office cordially; she didn't hold any grudges against him and kept his identity secret, so they were good friends, but the atmosphere at the moment seemed very tense. As he opened the door, he saw that he was among the last to arrive and settled against the back wall for the Hokage to begin speaking alongside Sai, who was doing the same. If the air outside was tense, than this was crushing; the last time something like this had been called, it was at the outbreak of the Third Shinobi War.

'Due to recent security measures installed in and around Konoha, we have picked up that just after the Chunin Exam finals, there will be an invasion carried out by Suna, Oto and ROOT nin,' The Hokage began solemnly.

'This has also been corroborated by Jiraiya, who has uncovered the same sort of information from the intelligence gathered by his spy network,' the Hokage continued, ' as such, we need to plan in order to react to this threat.'

'Hokage-sama, what do we have to play with in terms of reactive strategies?' Nara Shikaku asked, not sleeping due to the importance of the meeting.

'I will be forwarding those to you, Sai and Uzumaki Naruto, as he was the one that designed the most recent upgrades, and the two of you shall work together in order to create the most effective strategy possible,' Hiruzen said, 'but as of now, we are at war. You are to prepare, and wait for orders. Dismissed.'

They filed out, each mind racing at the preparations they would have to make, while Naruto, Sai and Shikaku discussed a time for meeting tomorrow.

* * *

8:00 AM- Hokage's Office

'What are you three doing here?' Hiruzen asked as Shikaku, Naruto and Sai walked into his office.

'Well, we couldn't think of another secure place that everyone knew and could report to during the invasion, and also with you here we won't have to put the plans through all the steps, you can just say if they would work or not,' Shikaku said before yawning. Hiruzen sighed.

'Makē, could you please block out the next two hours in my timetable?' He called to his secretary. He then activated a security and privacy seal that Naruto installed after hearing her affirmative.


	8. Chapter 8: Finals- Part 1

The day of the Chunin Exam finals was, well, very excitable, as one would expect. Merchants were up early, shouting out their wares in the hopes of gaining a profit before the event. People from all over the Elemental Nations were present, eager to see the strength of the genin from different villages, and there was a massive betting pool on various things: who would go to the semi-finals or finals, who would win the competition, and who would be the genin in the special event that was on the registers handed out by Chunin and the event organizers.

However the senior shinobi were more concerned for the pending invasion that would be taking place after the finals. Over the past week, the ANBU core and Jounin had been made aware of the situation, and they had been shoring up their weak spots. They had even been donating small amounts of chakra each, each day, to improve the effectiveness of the Detection/Shield Field. It was now able to stand a Tailed Beast Bomb from the Yonbi, and although it stopped people shunshining or using seals to get in, people were able to walk through it completely fine. As such, the Konoha forces would only have to worry about ninjas running through the city on foot, allowing them to control the flow of the soon-to-be battle.

Naruto, Sai and Ino gathered in front of the Exam stadium an hour and a half early, and exchanged greetings.

'Hey Ino, Sai!' Naruto called, waving at the two of them.

'Hello Naruto,' Sai greeted, distractedly, as he was drawing. Naruto didn't bother to try and reproach him, knowing that if he was putting drawing over greeting, then it must be important.

'So, ready to be revealed to the world Angel?' Ino asked, smiling. She had made especially sure to bring a camera to catch the faces of some of the crowd.

'To be honest, I'm not sure; it'll be good to be able to finally reveal my status, but I don't think I am going to particularly like the respect they'll give me. I am also not looking forward to trying and explain all of it to the teme,' Naruto grimaced.

The two of them looked over at what Sai was drawing, wondering if they could figure out why it was so important, but what they saw left them shocked.

'Three angels bearing shinobi weapons?' Ino asked, getting an inkling of where Sai was going.

'Yeah, I thought that we should have a jutsu that combines this team together. I think I shall call it Guardian Angels,' Sai nodded as he drew in kunai holsters and seals on the three angels depicted.

'You know they might start relating this team to angels; I mean, I have my wings, Ino has an angel on her trench coat and now you have this,' Naruto commented, envisioning their team being taught in the academy like the Sennin. Ino turned to Naruto.

'You're ready to go up against Neji first?' She asked

'Yeah' Naruto replied vacantly as he remembered getting the match draws after that meeting with the Hokage.

_Flashback_

Naruto sighed as he opened the door to his apartment, ignoring the shouts of the Wave children behind him. As he pushed the door inwards he became aware of a note on the floor, having obviously been pushed under the door. He picked it up cautiously; after all, it hadn't been the first time that someone had put a bomb in the mail for him, before realizing what it was.

Match Listings

Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuuga Neji

Sabaku no Gaia vs Omoi

Sabaku no Kankuro vs Sai

Nara Shikamaru vs Sabaku no Temari

Yamanaka Ino vs Samui

Aburame Shino vs Nii Yugito

This is round one; a free-for-all tournament, however round two will be team against team comprising of Konoha Team 7, the Suna team and Kumo team in one battle

Naruto nodded, it seemed that he would be going up against the Hyuuga Prodigy straight up, and then his second match would most likely be against Gaia unless Omoi manages to pull something out of the hat. Naruto, believe it or not, liked his lineup simply for the first two matches alone; his first would be a chance to show his true strength to Konoha, and his second would allow him to get close to Gaia and see what is happening with Shukaku, as he should be able to restrain her with Mokuton if necessary. After the first two matches he knew that he would have strong opponents as they were able to get this far, and the secondary round sounded very interesting, it meant that a team had to be able to hold off two other teams at the same time and come out on top.

_"And then after that I will have the 'Special Event',"_ Naruto thought grimly, as he hadn't not been told anything of the requirements or his opponents.

_Flashback End_

'The question is, will we be able to qualify for the second round? Will anyone?' Naruto asked quietly as the three of them moved into the competitors box and picking their seats, being the first to arrive.

'Well, due to my lineup, I have no reason not to, but it is you two that have the tough jobs,' Sai commented, not looking up from his drawing.

'Yes, I have tough opponents in the form of Samui and Yugito, and then you and Naruto, if I make it that far, while Naruto's problem is going to be maintaining his chakra amount, as Gaia has the same sort of stubbornness that he does,' Ino said.

'Hey,' Naruto couldn't help but whine.

'And we have the invasion afterwards as well,' Sai said, stopping his brush as the other competitors began to file into the box.

In the Kage Box

'Ah, Raikage-dono, Kazekage-dono, I am glad that you could make it,' Hiruzen said as he stood and shook hands with the leaders of two others of the Five Great Shinobi Nations.

'Well, I couldn't not attend, especially since all three of my genin are in the final, and they were trained by my brother. Perhaps he should spend his time training genin when he's in Kumo rather than coming up with stupid raps,' the Raikage, A, said, causing B, who was his bodyguard along with Darui, to start shouting about not dissing on raps.

'Indeed, it shall be interesting to see how my genin are against those of other villages, although I have heard that you have Konoha's Deathly Angel in the exams,' the Kazekage said from behind his facemask. He was very interested to see if Gaia had become an effective weapon, but even if she hadn't then she would still wreck havoc upon Konoha, allowing Suna to regain its funding.

'Yes, well, he is actually still a genin, he did those missions while in the academy due to certain circumstances, and I suspect that he shall have several surprises in store for us. It shall be a very exciting tournament,' Hiruzen said, almost laughing at the thought of the faces of the other two Kage.

Most of the spectators had taken their seats, among them the injured Lee and Sasuke, who had recently began his rehabilitation after several months under the care of Tsunade. As he took his seat with the other rookies who didn't make it to the finals, he was deeply surprised when Sakura did not start to fawn over him. He didn't know what had changed, and frankly he didn't really care either, they were finally off his back. But he glared down at the competitors box when he saw all three of his should-be-team members down there, although it did take a while for him to identify Ino, who seemed to have finally gotten over him.

_"Why does the dobe have so much power? I deserve that power as the last Uchiha,"_ he thought bitterly, remembering the pure strength of Naruto's punches vividly.

Hiruzen stood, and made his way to the lectern in front of the Kage box:

'Let the Chunin Exam Finals begin!'

And the crowd roared in approval.

With Genma Shiranui

Genma muttered as he walked up to the competitors box to organize the genin and make sure they were aware of the match order. He walked through the door:

'Alright, you should be aware that the first round is the free-for-all tournament; there is no exceptions to fighting teammates unless you forfeit. The secondary round will be a team battle between Konoha Team 7, the Sand Siblings and Kumo Team 3; you will face off against the other two teams at the same time, so I suggest that in between battles of round one you try and come up with a strategy. The special event at the end will pit Uzumaki Naruto against Konoha specialist in Kenjutsu, Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, but also against all of you at the end,' Genma announced, shocking the hell out of Naruto and the others.

_"Shit, that means I going to have to try and conserve as much chakra as possible, but thankfully I brought chakra pills, so I should be able to give a moderately good show against Neji rather than just speed behind him and knock him out,"_ Naruto thought, relieved at his wariness.

'Anyway the first match is Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuuga Neji, so if those two could descend into the arena and wait as I write up the other matches on the board here so people can be ready to go as I call their matches,' Genma said, writing up the match list.

Neji and Naruto rose calmly from their seats before walking down the stairs to the arena, both deep in thought.

_"This will be a tough battle for me to win, as I have never won against Naruto before, and he knows my fighting style. In fact I may have to pull out my trump cards early to just get through, but even if I do, then I would have to face Gaia, who is just as dangerous,"_ Neji thought, aware that it was unlikely he would win.

_"Hm, well to put on a good show I would need to face Neji using only Taijutsu, but that would demean him unnecessarily, and could also bore the crowd, as only Taijutsu masters like Gai, Lee or the Kage would be able to see me, so I should try and use a mix. It will be interesting to see what he has learnt over the month break,"_ Naruto thought, face completely blank, showing no emotion.

The two of them walked into the arena and spaced themselves, twenty paces in between the two of them, both emotionless as the crowd psyched itself up. All of the genin watching felt as if there was a sort of peace in the arena that, with the slightest movement, would shatter, as the two down in the arena made no movement. They just watched each other, everything else fading out of concentration as neither showed the slightest hint of doubt or backing down.

'Man, I like the look of these two already; it takes a lot to stare unblinkingly towards the certain pain that is to come,' A said as he leaned forward in his seat, eager to see the match.

'I get the feeling that this will primarily be a Taijutsu battle between the two, and I'm not certain who will take the most hits, but I suspect that it will be the Hyuuga,' Hiruzen commented as he watched the two.

'But it is almost suicidal to face a Hyuuga in Taijutsu, they are almost built for it with their Byakugan and Gentle Fist combination,' the Kazekage refuted.

Genma looked on anxiously from his position in between the two prodigies, before bringing his arm up.

'Hajime!' He shouted before jumping out of the arena in case the start of the match was explosive. The crowd quieted as they didn't move, and the tension began to rack up slowly. Neji activated his Byakugan, knowing that he needed it now more than ever; he was going up against someone who could match his sensei Gai, a Taijutsu master, in speed and strength, if not surpass him. Indeed, Gai spoke often of Naruto, and Neji and his team had witnessed a spar between the two once.

_Flashback _

Neji, Tenten and Lee watched quietly as Gai and Naruto took off their weights and leaped back into their spar. Neji had activated his Byakugan back at the very start of the fight to just keep track of the two, but now they were just after images and blurs, and all they could see was the dust being flung into the air and craters and trees collapsing from the strikes of the two.

_End Flashback_

Naruto ever so slowly set himself into the opening stance of his personal Taijutsu style, _Fists of the Hurricane,_ never taking his eyes off Neji as he did so. They stayed like that for a few more minutes, the crowd growing ever more restless, before Naruto, in a flash, brought his fist up and smashed into the ground, causing a massive crater to develop and a huge cloud of dust to be thrown up. The crowd, especially the civilians, were shocked at the feat reminiscent of Tsunade's strength, but when the dust settled, not many of the shinobi were surprised to see that Naruto was nowhere in sight.

'Man, Naruto is going fast,' Kanako spoke as she watched the battle with her Sharingan.

'Where is he Kanako?' Anko asked, turning to the non-Uchiha Sharingan bearer.

'He is using pure speed to maintain his position on the wall. He is literally running on the wall of the arena without using chakra, just speed,' Kanako answered, causing those nearby to start muttering.

'Only Naruto would be able to do that,' Anko replied, smiling at Naruto's ever growing abilities.

Naruto ran, and after he had gained enough speed, jumped off the wall and launched himself at Neji at such speeds that his eyes couldn't follow. He kicked Neji in the back, launching him into the wall opposite the two of them. The resultant dust cloud obscured the vision of all watching, but it revealed Neji standing in a dome-like hole in the arena wall.

'You truly are a genius Neji, to be able to use the Kaiten, even though it is a Main House technique, and to use it in such a way,' Naruto commented as he watched Neji walk towards him.

'Why haven't you finished this match yet? We both know that you are more than capable of doing so, after all, fate is with you today,' Neji asked, feeling slightly put off.

'You need to stop with the fate crap, Neji. Let me put it this way, if someone without the help of fate trained until they dropped, they would win against someone with fate on their side. It can be seen in you, after all you trained like mad when you were younger to get where you are today, but if you didn't you wouldn't be here. It was your decision to train, therefore fate has no say in your life,' Naruto said, watching Neji for his reaction.

'It is my fate to forever be a servant to the Main House, I have no choice, due to my Cage-Bird Seal,' Neji said.

'So you resign yourself to it without searching for a way out?' Naruto asked, studying his nails.

'There is no way out! Do you think we like being slaves!' Neji shouted, beginning to give into his rage.

'In Fuuinjutsu, there is a counter to everything, one just has to find it, I would know, being the best sealing master in the Elemental Nations. Fuuinjutsu is like a language, one has to find the proper combination,' Naruto said, looking at Neji once more. Neji didn't respond, just glared at Naruto, who sighed before setting himself into his stance once more. Neji charged, despite knowing that he would lose if he did so, it was better than losing with attacking at least once.

'You are in range of my field of divination, Eight Trigrams Sixty Four Palms!' Neji spoke, shocking the members of the Hyuuga Clan.

_"To think that he would be able to perform both Kaiten and Eight Trigrams Sixty Four Palms, he has unrivalled potential in the Clan. Such a genius is wasted in the Branch family,"_ Hiashi, Hinata's father and Hyuuga Clan Head thought, thinking of how proud his brother would be. Behind him the Hyuuga Council was conferring, wondering if Neji had stolen such techniques from the Main House.

Down in the arena Naruto was dodging the first of Neji's strikes, but as he went higher in terms of number of strikes, he started to speed up, hitting a scattering of Naruto's tenkutsu, causing Naruto to collapse. The sheer pain he was feeling at having several of his tenkutsu forcibly closed was immense, but he had felt a lot worse in his childhood, so he had very few impairments caused by the pain. Neji's eyes widened as he turned when he heard Naruto getting back up, having turned away and told the proctor that the match was over after Naruto had fallen.

'How? The pain alone should render you almost unconscious,' Neji asked as Naruto stood up.

'I have been hurt a lot worse before, believe me, along with the fact that you sealing my chakra points does almost nothing, as my muscles can operate fully without chakra, and I can just reopen them,' Naruto shrugged.

'What do you mean reopen them? That's not possible,' Neji was getting more confused by the second, but he knew that if Naruto could do what he said, then he had no way to win this match.

'Like this,' was all Naruto said before red chakra covered his body and reopened his closed tenkutsu. To those who could sense chakra or had the Byakugan or Sharingan, it seemed as if Naruto's chakra exploded to well above what seemed possible, and it was already above Kage level before. There was a mix of blue, black and red flames of chakra coming off him, which intrigued most shinobi. Blue chakra was normal, the red they were confused by, as red chakra was Kyuubi's chakra, but they felt no malice from it, and only Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Yamato and Kanako knew what the correlation to the black flames were. Naruto grinned before the chakra died down to its normal level once more before he disappeared, reappearing behind the Hyuuga, who was temporarily blinded due to the chakra and knocking him out.

'Shousa Uzumaki Naruto!' Genma shouted, leaving the audience stunned into quiet before several people, many of them Jounins, started to clap and cheer for Naruto, having heard of his abilities and betted on him to win. Needless to say, many civilians lost a lot of money due to Naruto winning, so they weren't in the mood to congratulate him right now. Naruto grabbed the unconscious Hyuuga before he shunshined in front Hyuuga Hiashi, and set Neji on a seat next to Hinata before turning and whispering into Hiashi's ear:

'It might be time that you told him the truth of that night, Hiashi-sama. Also if you want your clan to be free from the prison that your council has built, there is a slip of paper inside the top right pocket of his vest.' Naruto shunshined away before the clan head could reply.

Gaia vs Omoi

'The next match is Sabaku no Gaia vs Omoi of Kumo!' Genma announced as the crowd was discussing the first match, wanting to get this show on the road. Gaia arrived in a Sand shunshin, spraying the leftover sand everywhere, while Omoi appeared in a Lightning shunshin. The two sized each other up, with Omoi just showing a hint of strain, knowing that Gaia wouldn't hesitate to kill him if she wanted. Then his eyes hardened, he wasn't going to make this easy for the female Jinchuuriki.

_"The key to being able to make this a fair match is speed, which is why I worked on that primarily over the month, the question is; will it be enough?"_ Omoi thought, as he withdrew his katana. Everyone looked on as he channeled Lightning chakra into the blade, causing a field of Lightning to appear around it.

'Hajime!'

Gaia immediately went on the offensive, as waves of sand sped towards the Kumo genin, who was forced to cut his way though the sand with his katana in order to not be captured by the sand and crushed. Omoi, as soon as he could, withdrew and began a Ninjutsu combination

'Lightning Style: Lightning Surge!'

A wave of lightning issued forth from Omoi along the ground, splintering and cracking it, and crashing into the wave of Gaia's sand, immobilizing it and continuing on towards Gaia, but dissipated before it could reach her. But Omoi had channeled Lightning into his recently redrawn katana and gone after the wave of lightning, reaching Gaia without having to dodge her sand defenses. He brought the katana down on her sand defenses, and broke through her sand shield, surprising Gaia, who managed to move just in time before shunshining away from Omoi, wary now of his Lightning techniques which seemed to break through her defenses with ease.

She attacked with the sand that was behind him, catching him off guard and smashing his left leg. With her opponent unable to escape she sent a wave of sand to crush Omoi, but as the wave came down on top of him she didn't see Naruto zoom underneath with his hood up. The sand crashed down, and tried to crush the genin but failed so she drew it back for a second go, revealing a shield of blue chakra that surrounded Omoi and another shinobi like a bubble, extending from two wings of chakra that sprouted from the unknown shinobi's back.

'That was unnecessary,' the shinobi commented before picking up Omoi and carrying him over to the medics that had rushed onto the field.

'Shousa Sabaku no Gaia!' The announcement didn't surprise too many people, but they admired Omoi's determination to fight even though he knew he was outmatched.

Sabaku no Kankuro vs Sai

'Proctor! I forfeit!' Kankuro shouted from the competitors' box, unwilling to fight before the invasion, although he would have to fight in the second round and special event.

'What, afraid of having the crap beaten out of you?' Ino asked Kankuro while Sai sat back down with a huff, bored out of his mind.

'Take that back girly!' Kankuro shouted, face red with anger.

'I will once you fight Sai,' Ino said, smirking.

'Ah! Fine! Proctor, I withdraw my forfeit!' Kankuro shouted before he turned back to the ginning Ino and Sai.

'Well, I suppose I can ignore the fact that to forfeit is irrevocable, as he revoked his forfeiture around 30 seconds after he made the initial decision,' Genma muttered, thankful that he had hesitated in calling the next match.

Up in the stands, Kankuro got the feeling that he was not going to enjoy this match, as he glanced at Sai and saw an icy cold smile on his face.

The two of them stood across from one another, although Kankuro had revealed his puppet Crow, causing a stir amongst the spectators; it had been a long time since they had seen a Suna puppet user fight in a Chunin Exam finals.

'As this seems to be a battle of puppets, I request permission to unseal my own equivalent,' Sai said, shocking the Suna shinobi watching.

'That's a bluff! Only Suna knows the puppet techniques and construction,' Kankuro shouted.

'That's why I said my equivalent, it's not a true puppet in the technical sense,' Sai replied in a bored tone.

'Can you bring it out in the middle of battle?' Genma asked, interrupting their argument.

'Yes,' Sai replied, having already learned the answer from his question.

'Well, then you can do it then,' Genma ordered, before bringing his arm up. 'Hajime!'

Kankuro immediately sent his puppet after Sai, remembering the lightning panther from the preliminaries, and concluded that this puppet equivalent he was speaking of was probably even more annoying to deal with. Sai flipped end over end, dodging the senbons launched by Crow neatly before backing off and hurriedly adding chakra to several of his drawings to buy him time. A pair of wolves burst forth, forcing Kankuro to withdraw his puppet in order to defend himself of risk losing the match or his life. Sai quickly drew back as well, knowing that the faster he did this the more he could avoid having to dodge the attacks of Kankuro's puppet.

Sai hurriedly drew a few additions to his drawing that would allow it to better combat the machination of wood and metal, before calling out his technique.

'Ink Style: Guardian Angel!'

Everyone leaned forward, none having seen it before, to see an angel of ink the was two times the size of a man and bearing a huge zanbatou in his right hand. His wings fluttered slightly before his head moved smoothly towards Sai and queried.

'Orders?' The bland dull tone caused Kankuro to shiver as he beheld the huge monstrosity before him.

'Force him to surrender, if necessary destroy the puppet,' Sai said as he indicated towards Kankuro, who was busy trying to come up with a plan. The colossus nodded in assent before he started to thunder towards the puppet and its master.

'Holy shit!' Kankuro cursed as he barely managed to dodge out of the way in time to avoid being struck with the flat of the massive zanbatou.

Up in the stands many of the shinobi were talking of Sai's replication of puppets through different techniques.

'Now that Sai has brought out such a monstrosity, Kankuro will be forced on the defensive, and will be more focused on that Ink construct than Sai himself,' Naruto said to the other competitors as they watched the match.

'Yes, well the kid is an A-rank shinobi, so Kankuro knew it was unlikely he would win,' Temari said outwardly, but was inwardly very worried as Kankuro was forced to duck under the massive ink blade.

'What the hell have you been teaching your genin Kanako?' Asuma asked in surprise as the Jounin watched the match.

'Ah, well, Sai has always been able to manipulate ink like so, but this is actually less complicated to do than the Lightning Ink Panther he set loose in the prelims. It just takes more time to draw is all, along with a lot more chakra, but none of it is elemental chakra, so its pretty easy, relatively speaking,' Kanako said, not turning to face the Sarutobi.

'Wait, you said he was always able to do this?' Asuma asked, eyes widening in shock and curiosity.

'Yeah, most of our training was focused on Ino, which is why she's almost low-Jounin level in some areas,' Kanako said, surprising the man further.

Kankuro sighed as he finally got a breather from constantly dodging, having finally managed to connect his chakra strings to Crow and good now manage to have it annoy the monstrosity across from him. Scanning for Sai hurriedly, his thoughts froze when he realized that he couldn't see him. All of a sudden there was a flash of metal in front of him, and Kankuro felt his chakra strings be cut, stopping his connection with Crow, before he saw Sai in front of him with his tanto held at his throat.

'When? How?' Kankuro asked, staggered at the speed of Sai's movements.

'Well, I shunshined almost immediately after you stopped moving, and waited as you came to the realization that there was only a few places I could be. As for how I was able to cut your chakra strings, my tanto is made of chakra metal, and has a number of seals on it that allow it to disrupt chakra on contact,' Sai said conversationally, before the proctor called the match in his favor.

'Oh, and I spared your puppet, as it was a creation of yours, and creations should be respected when they fit their purpose, though I wouldn't rely on them so much if I were you,' Sai said, showing that the ink angel was gone.

'Thanks,' Kankuro said grudgingly as he walked over to his puppet.

'Never really did like the idea of puppets; they remind me too much of dolls,' Sai said to himself before he shunshined back to the competitors box.

Nara Shikamaru vs Sabaku no Temari

Shikamaru was considering forfeiting his match; it was really too troublesome to go out and fight a girl in front of a huge crowd.  
_"Then again, if I do forfeit, my mother, Sakura and Ino would never let me hear the end of it, and that may be even more troublesome,"_ he thought regrettably. Ino, as if she had heard his thoughts shook her head before walking over to where he was standing at the railing.

'Shikamaru, you aren't thinking of forfeiting this match before you even got down there, are you?' She asked in a sweet tone, too sweet. Shikamaru paled.

'No,' he said before he could stop himself. Ino smiled.

'Good,' she said briefly before grabbing the back of his shirt and throwing him over the railing and into the arena while all the other competitors watched, most with amusement.

'Ino, was that really necessary?' Naruto asked as he walked over to the railing and looked down, seeing that Shikamaru had stabbed a pair of kunai into the wall to slow his descent.

'Yes,' Ino replied unabashedly, causing Naruto to face-palm.

Temari watched in annoyance as the Konoha genin refused to come down when their match was called, although this transformed into amusement when she witnessed Ino throwing him over the edge. Shikamaru walked over to the center of the arena, head down in sheer laziness.

'Why do I have to fight a girl? It's so troublesome,' Shikamaru moaned quietly, but it still managed to reach the ears of Temari.

'What the hell was that?' Temari asked rhetorically, already determined to give this guy a beating.

'Hajime!' Genma couldn't stop the sweatdrop as he leapt away from the two; all Naras seem to have inherent laziness.

Temari immediately brought out her fan and began throwing Wind jutsus at Shikamaru, full of feminine fury, forcing Shikamaru to try and dodge. Shikamaru, knowing that he had to retreat, distracted the Suna kunoichi by throwing several kunai and paper bombs at her, before fleeing to the shelter of the nearby group of trees.

'Get out here you coward!' Temari roared angrily as she sent more Wind jutsus after him, buffeting the trees this way and that. Shikamaru didn't reply, sighing at Temari's ferocity.

_"Why are women so damn troublesome? In fact, why am I even bothering with this fight at all? Oh yeah, that's right, Ino,"_ He thought before going into what Asuma liked to call his 'Thinking Position'.

'Oh, finally, he's actually getting serious,' Asuma said, leaning back and rolling his eyes while the other Jounin looked at him curiously.

'What do you mean Asuma?' Kurenai asked. Kurenai was the one amongst the three Ice Queens of Konoha that was most able to deal with the Sarutobi, as Kanako and Anko were frosty towards him at best.

'That position he's in shows that he is actually focusing on the match rather than whining about it,' Asuma said, bringing a lighter up to the new cigarette that he had just placed between his teeth. All of the others, excepting Gai, who was watching the match intently and didn't notice, moved back hurriedly as he breathed in deeply before the smoke came out of his mouth.

'Well, he is a Nara, so it should prove interesting to see how he adapts,' Kanako said, turning back to the match after she and the other nearby females had given Asuma a death stare.

Shikamaru meanwhile was rapidly going through different strategies, knocking them off if they had a small likelihood of success or were plain stupid. This left him with a list of around forty different paths that the current situation could take.

_"Ah, if I don't at least show that I could win this match mom and Ino would beat the crap out of me, but at the same time it would be really annoying to go up against Sai, who I know I can't win against, in the next round,"_ Shikamaru thought.

His lips curled up at one corner briefly before he began to move.

Shikamaru reappeared on one side of the stadium as Temari was taking a break from tossing Wind jutsus with the sun behind him, but Temari caught onto his plan immediately.

_"He's planning to use the sun to be able to lengthen his shadow abilities from before,"_ she thought, remembering that she had started on that side originally.

Shikamaru threw a couple of smoke bombs, causing Temari to think that he was trying to use the smoke cast to initially lengthen his shadow, before a few kunai came shooting out of the smoke. Not bothering to use a Wind jutsu to deflect them, she merely dodged the knife-like objects before casting a Wind jutsu to disperse the smoke. However as she was about to launch said jutsu, she felt her body unable to move and was forced to drop her fan and walk closer to the smoke. Shikamaru walked out of the smoke.

'Shadow Possession Jutsu, success!'

'How did he manage that?' Karui asked from her spot next to Omoi and Samui, having accompanied the Raikage and his entourage to the finals. Naruto cut in, hearing the question.

'When he threw the smoke bombs down, he did it with the primary intention of masking his movements. He probably did the jutsu, connected it to the kunai he threw at Temari, allowing him to gain about half a meter of extra length. To make sure he also threw a few kunai upwards to cast shadows in front of the sun, in case it was necessary. His shadow jumped from kunai to kunai before threading back through all of them back to him, allowing him to connect to Temari's shadow,' Naruto explained, admiring the concentration Shikamaru must have needed to perform such a tactic. All around him the others were mentally applauding Shikamaru for even coming up with the idea, let alone performing it. Down in the arena Shikamaru was doing the same thing, amazing the crowd and enraging Temari, who was beginning to get pissed off by his tone of voice. Then he did something that amazed the crowd even more, while at the same time perplexing them.

'I quit,' he said, causing Temari to blow her top.

'What did you say? If this is about me being a girl!' Temari shouted, but was interrupted by Shikamaru before she could say anything more.

'No it's more about the fact that I am almost out of chakra, which means I may as well forfeit in the next round, while you still have quite a bit of chakra left,' Shikamaru said, infuriating Temari even more. The Chunin and Jounin who were watching in the stands shook their heads in exasperation, as quite a few of their number were sensors, and could tell quite easily that the boy was lying, but thankfully for him the judges didn't.

'It seems that the Nara laziness is present once more,' Anko laughed at Asuma, who was holding his head in exasperation at his student's actions.

'You know, I should have known that he would do something like that rather than bother to go through the tournament. Then again, there is still the second round,' Asuma commented before going off to meet the lazy genin.

'I swear to Kami that I am going to beat the crap out of that lazy slacker,' Ino growled, knowing full well of what Shikamaru had just done. Naruto just backed away from her slowly as she exhibited rage, but calmed down once she seemed to regain control, remembering that her match was next.

Yamanaka Ino vs Samui

The two blondes regarded each other quietly before the both leaped over the railing, not wanting to bother with walking all the way down. The crowd murmured softly; many of them had heard mentions of both kunoichi from various shinobi, and both were said to be very skilled for genin. Apparently the young Yamanaka had been personally trained by the legendary Deathly Angel and Panther duo, while Samui was known to be the strongest genin in Kumo by far.

'Well, this should be an interesting match,' Tenten commented to Chouji and Sakura, unaware that Sasuke was listening in from the row behind, who was wondering what all the fuss was about.

_"Well, if I remember that Ino girl was nothing more than a fangirl, so logically that Samui girl should win, and rather easily too. How did that fangirl even get to the finals?"_ Sasuke thought, unknowing of Ino's rapid growth in skill and ability.

'Hajime!' Genma called before jumping out of the way of the two potential Chunin.

At the call neither girl moved, assessing each other, letting the initial roar of the crowd fade into utter silence, before Ino drew her chokuto from her scabbard slowly, the sound clear to all. In response Samui drew her tanto, before deciding that if Ino were to go on the offensive with Kenjutsu she wouldn't have much of a chance, and thus leapt forward, speeding through hand signs at a fast rate as she did so. Ino watched as two Lightning Bunshins sprang up on either side of Samui, breaking off to try and flank her. Ino grinned, before creating a Kage Bunshin behind her to guard her back, and charged forward, the sound of her chokuto colliding with Samui's tanto reverberating throughout the arena, causing the crowd to roar. The two fought back and forth, swapping from offensive to defensive, while Ino's Kage Bunshin faced off against the two Lightning Bunshins, slipping between their attacks, but not allowing them to go after its creator.

Ino, glancing behind her quickly at the three Bunshins while Samui was struggling to hold her chokuto away from her, maintained her pressure on the Kumo genin with one hand while drawing kunai with explosive seals on them with the other. She flicked them hurriedly while spinning away from Samui, the kunai thudding into the ground at the feet of the two Lightning Bunshins, who didn't notice, being preoccupied with her Kage Bunshin, who did. The Kage Bunshin moved back quickly before jumping and back flipping into the air, out of range of the explosives, which went off as she did so. The Lightning Bunshins were demolished, their Lightning chakra dissipating into the ground harmlessly, and the Kage Bunshin landed in a crouch, sword to one side, looking at the torn up ground before standing and turning.

Samui cursed as the Kage Bunshin shunshined behind her, trying to box her in between Ino and the Kage Bunshin, before she copied Ino's tactic and shunshined out of the trap. The two just looked at her, waiting to see her next tactic, but their eyes widened as they felt a massive surge of chakra suddenly rise from Samui, the chakra visibly emanating from all over her body. Through the Jounin-senseis and the genin there were many similar thoughts as their brains raced through possible theories as to the chakra containment method that Samui had used.

_"Well, I know that Samui isn't a Jinchuuriki, as Akatsuki keeps tags on all of them, and I already know the two from Kumo, being Yugito and B, so the most likely method for her having that much chakra is she had some form of containment, like a chakra storage seal. However if she had that much chakra in said seal, than she has obviously been using it for some time. Either way, this match just got a lot more difficult for Ino,"_ Naruto thought, keeping his thoughts from showing on his face.

_"Interesting, she seems to have been holding a lot of chakra back in reserve for when it was necessary, but how is she going to use it?"_ Kanako thought leaning forward in her seat along with a few of the other Jounin.

_"Good idea, keeping a majority of one's strength in reserve, but it's so troublesome,"_ Shikamaru thought as he analyzed the fight through lazy eyes.

Samui smiled icily before bringing forth around 25 Lightning Bunshins, causing the eyes of all watching to expand in momentary shock. Ino grinned suddenly, before creating four other Kage Bunshins. She and the Bunshins then proceeded to charge at the larger force, causing many in the crowd to wonder if she was mad, but even as they were charging they were throwing kunai with explosive tags, effectively halving the number of Lightning Bunshins. Ino herself ran straight through the explosions to reach Samui and engage her once more before she could slip away and plan a strategy, while her Kage Bunshin split the enemy force amongst themselves, each facing 3 using pure Kenjutsu.

Samui cursed as Ino came straight for her once more.

_"Does this girl ever stop hunting you? She's damn persistent!"_ She thought internally while maintaining her icy façade. She then began to flash through hand seals.

'Lightning Style: Lightning Spears!'

Yellow spears of Lightning chakra formed, around five, before launching at the oncoming Yamanaka. Ino, seeing the flying spears, quickly jumped to one side, allowing the spears to rush by her and fly between the groups of battling Bunshin, and continued her rush towards the Kumo genin. Samui cursed, withdrawing her tanto with her left hand and holding a kunai in backhanded in her right, knowing that even with it she would be hard pressed to beat the Yamanaka in Kenjutsu.

Meanwhile the Kage Bunshin were fighting off the trios of Lightning Bunshin, ducking, weaving and flipping around their attacks, before all of a sudden they repeated the tactic Ino had executed with the original Kage Bunshin. However this time the Lightning Bunshins realized the danger, but it brought the Kage Bunshin time to regroup and hid them from the view of their opposing Bunshin momentarily, which was all they needed. Seeing that the Kage Bunshin had disappeared from their view after the smoke had cleared, the Lightning Bunshins grouped together, ready to make a stand, as they had formed a circle with them all facing outwards. Suddenly four of the Bunshin fell over to the ground and dissipated, and the remaining Kage Bunshin revealed that they had shunshined to the center of the circle. As shunshin was a form of high-speed travel, it meant that they must have used to Kage Bunshin, one from either side, to break through the ring of Lightning Bunshin, sacrificing themselves but eliminating four more Lightning Bunshin and piercing the ring. As such, it was now three Kage Bunshin against eleven Lightning Bunshin, there was just one problem; they were surrounded.

Samui and Ino both knew of the position that their Bunshin were in, and Ino drew back suddenly before grinning.

'You really think I wouldn't have a chakra storage seal, when my teammate is one of the leading Fuuinjutsu users in the Elemental Nations?' Ino spoke, before releasing said seal, causing her body to light up with bluish-white chakra, before she continued. 'The best part is that my chakra storage seal is a lot more advanced, and I can release portions of the chakra held within, rather than all at once.'

_"Shit, I played my hand way too early, the likelihood of me winning is falling with each second this continues. I need to finish this as soon as possible,"_ Samui swore thoughtfully as her eyes narrowed in determination. Ino created around 10 more Kage Bunshin, who flanked the Lightning Bunshin focusing on the three in the center, cutting them down in short order. The Kage Bunshin then focused their attention on Samui, charging her in a mass.

'Lightning Style: Lightning Slicer!' At Samui's cry, she swung her tanto horizontally, causing an arc of Lightning chakra to leap from the end of her blade and rush towards Ino and her Kage Bunshin. Ino having been at the back of the group, managed to shunshin out of the way in time, but the Kage Bunshin had all been eliminated, and Samui sighed in slight satisfaction before her world went dark with the impact of the hilt of Ino's chokuto against her temple.

'Well, that is certainly not what I was expecting; it was a very good display of both strategy and skill from both genin. I will be sure to vote for both of them to be Chunin,' Hiruzen said as Genma announced the match.

'Yes, that Yamanaka seemed to be able to play directly to Samui's weaknesses by dodging or circumventing her attacks and attacking when she wanted. That first move disturbed me slightly, as it seemed to indicate she would be fine sacrificing her teammates in order to win, but obviously it was planned,' A said, nodding in agreement, while the Kazekage kept silent.

'Dammit! We're getting shown up by these other nin so easily,' Karui said as Ino walked over to them carrying Samui.

'Trust me when I tell you that it was not easy. We both have similar minds when it comes to battle; we are both underhanded but efficient,' Ino said, having overheard Karui's comment.

'Well, wish me luck,' Yugito smiled as she heard her name being called along with Shino's.

'Good luck!' Karui and Ino called, both being good friends with the Nibi Jinchuuriki, although Ino wished luck to Shino as well, being the only one of his team in the finals.

Shino knew it was unlikely he would win, due to Yugito being, as far as he knew, a high fire nature, but he refused to back down and forfeit. Also the information he could get from this fight could be invaluable in the future. The two faced each other across the arena, Shino with his bugs swarming around him, creating a buzzing sound, while Yugito just stood there, although her ears twitched occasionally, reminding the spectators oddly of a cat.

Naruto looked at Yugito and imagined her with cat ears and a tail, and almost burst out laughing at the idea, not noticing that the eyes of Ino and Gaia, oddly enough, had narrowed dangerously. And although Sai did, and was about to warn Naruto of their anger, he took another glance at the two, smiled knowingly, and sat back. The two fumed silently for a few moments before they realized what they were doing.

_"Stealing his attention, stupid- ah, wait a minute, what the hell am I on about? It's obvious that they're going to get together, I mean, she was shooting looks at him ever since we met in the Land of Waves,"_ Ino thought, avoiding the issue of her liking Naruto.

_"Damn it! Just like that, she didn't even doing anything and he is getting closer to her! How can I do something like that? Should I ask her for advice, but that would reveal that I am just a normal girl rather than an emotionless machine,"_ Gaia thought worriedly before mentally asking herself why she is having these thoughts. Shukaku didn't help.

Aburame Shino vs Nii Yugito

'Hajime!' Shino was forced to dodge immediately as Yugito started launching fireballs towards him. The Aburame created a few basic clones; if he had made bug clones they wouldn't have been much use, as Yugito fire techniques would just set them alight. Yugito was able to dispel the clones easily, and knowing that Shino was behind her, used an area fire jutsu, causing him to back off hurriedly unless his bugs be exterminated.

The game of cat and mouse went on for a few minutes, before Shino finally forfeited, knowing that there was no way he could win. His bugs would just be annihilated every time they tried to even approach the Kumo kunoichi, especially after she activated a jutsu that allowed fire to rise up from the ground around her and hit any attacks approaching her.

'The winner of the match is Nii Yugito,' Genma announced, sympathizing with the Aburame's situation.

'We shall have a fifteen minute break before the next round,' Hiruzen said from his lectern.

15 Minutes Later

'It is now time for the second half of the first tournament! Will Sabaku no Gaia and Uzumaki Naruto please make their way down to the arena!'


End file.
